How to Cut Old Shirts for Quilts

Preparing the Shirt Fabric

• 1

  Take the shirt apart at the seams. Either unpick the seams or cut along them with scissors. Remove the collar and the cuffs.

• 2

  Lay the back of the shirt on a flat surface. Snip through the hem at the bottom of the shirt, 1/2-inch from the edge seam. Tear the strip of fabric off the side of the shirt-back. Press the torn edge flat.

• 3

  Pull out any stray threads on the torn side of the fabric as though you were fraying it. When all of the stray threads are removed, the edge of the fabric will be straight along the grain line, making your quilt squares accurate.

Cutting the Squares

• 4

  Lay the shirt-back on a cutting mat that has a measured grid. Line up the straight edge with one of the cutting lines.

• 5

  Decide how long you want your squares to be. Line up the ruler on the cutting mat the determined distance from your straight edge. Be careful not to move the straight edge from its line. Hold the ruler firmly in its new position on top of the fabric. Run the rotary cutter along the side of the ruler, through the fabric, so that you have a long strip.

• 6

  Square off the short edge of the fabric strip. Line up one long, straight edge on a line on the cutting mat. Line up your ruler across the short fabric edge, using the cutting mat lines as your guide. Cut off the uneven top edge with the rotary cutter.

• 7

  Line up the short edge of the fabric strip on the cutting mat. Count the same number of lines that you counted for the width of the strip. Position your ruler on that line and cut through the fabric with the rotary cutter to make a square.

• 8

  Repeat making straight edges by fraying, then lining up the straight edges on the cutting mat to cut up the rest of the shirt into squares.