I have been saving my husband’s worn out dress shirts for years to use the fabric for quilting. They are too worn at the collar and elbows for him to wear to work, but there is plenty of good fabric left for quilts.
I made one quilt from them a year or so ago and used the pockets and plackets for interest.
A friend gave me a nice stack of shirt fabric that she had acquired from a custom shirt maker as discarded samples.
The “Trail Mix” quilt from All People Quilt has been on my to-do list for years, and I decided it would be perfect for these shirt fabrics. (The pattern is free; you can click on the name and link to the page.)
I’ve made the first two types of block
and have arrived at time to make the blocks that provide the accent rows of tiny blocks. I don’t think I have a shirt bright enough to make these accents stand out, so I’m considering solids from my stash. Any opinions about which would work best?
Rust tone-on-tone
Mottled soft red
Solid red
Solid yellow
Solid Orange
Thanks for your advice!
Zippy Quilts 
Love this! Solid red
Thanks, Linda! See you Tuesday 🙂
This should be a fun project for you. I love the Trail Mix design and have long thought of making one, too. I would go with the solid red or the rust at the top. I think the darker values will show better against the lovely mix of mostly medium-value shirt fabrics. And wow lucky you to get to play with the sample pack!
Yes, the sample pack adds some much-needed variety. I figured out toolate that the little accent squares finish 1/4” each 😬 Waaay ouside my comfort zone!
wow that is little!
I like both the mottled soft red and the solid orange, both add a bit of pizzazz.
Thanks! As you can see from the last quilt, the shirts aline do lack pizzazz!
I like the top two, the rust tone-on-tone and the soft mottled red. I think they look like they have aged a bit, as soft shirt fabrics do. I think I would use both of them randomly mixed.
This will be beautiful!
I like that idea! Thanks!
Great use of shirts! I tend to favor the rust or the orange.
Thanks! I’m actually thinking of using a little of each.
Oh this is very yummy to me as I love recycled materials and I love the personal connection of the materials! That Trial Mix patterns looks familiar (maybe I have it somewhere) and the perfect pattern!
Oh I forgot to give my two cents. Well I love the orange but probably the solid red or maybe the mottled red would work best with the shirts.
Thanks for your two cents 😄
The shirting fabrics vary in weight and texture, which is a challenge with which I’m sure you are familiar.
Oh yes – sometimes I have to add a light interfacing to the fabric if it is too friable.
OK, I had a laugh before I looked up friable. My only previous encounter with the word was in connection with medical situations. Yikes!
It is what I call delicate fabric, especially fabric that likes to shed threads while are working on it (like a delicate woven fabric). I could totally be using the word wrong but it is what I think of some of the challenging recycled fabrics – ha!
You are using it correctly! It means something that tends to crumble. So how did it come to be a term for bleeds easily? Who knows?
Great pattern for shirting design fabric scraps! I’m with Chela – the rust and/or orange. But I think I prefer the rust because its darker lines in the design adds depth, grounding the basic rust color.
Enjoy your project!
Great argument for the rust. Thanks!
This is gorgeous. What about black for the accent? Just to throw a spanner in the works!
I like that idea! Black is always a good accent!
Mottled soft red is my choice; glad you could use those samples!
They lend some needed variety to the mostly-blue shirts from Steve 🙂
Ohhh!!! I love the quilt pattern!!! And I’m going to throw in another spinner! What if you recycled a pair of jeans? …maybe a darker pair of blue jeans? That’s what I’m thinking I’ll use on my hubby’s quilt! And have you ever made the scrappy binding??? You could use all of those pretty, bright, bold colors!!! That would really give it a spark!!!
I just re-read what you’re project is… I see where you would need a color to offset the shirt colors… I say the mottled red! Maybe use the recycled blue jeans as the binding!
Thanks for your ideas 🙂 I do have some jeans, so we’ll see what happens.
I was going to say the mottled rust or solid red but saw someones idea of using both the mottled rust and mottled red which I kinda like.
I think the “ final” decision may be part orange, part rust 🙂
Great quilt from shirts. Thanks for sharing.