Do you have a stack of baby onesies you'd like to make into a quilt? In this tutorial we're going to cut up our baby clothes and make a beautiful quilt top.
Watch this video to learn an easy stitch-and-flip foundation piecing technique that will make piecing knit baby clothes material into a quilt very easy and fun!
Shop for tools and supplies I used in this tutorial:
|
|
|
|
|
My baby Betty grew out of her cutest newborn onesies very fast. I wanted to preserve the memories of her earliest days in a fun quilt that she could play with for years to come.
I've pieced a few t-shirt quilts over the years, but for this one I knew the pieces would be smaller because they were cut from tiny baby clothes.
Why Stitch-and-Flip on Flannel?
After testing a few ideas, I realized stitch-and-flip foundation piecing the knit t-shirt fabric onto flannel strips was a good fit. No, you don't have to use cotton flannel if you don't want to. A good alternative is 100% cotton woven fabric, like a cotton bedsheet or quilter's cotton fabric.
Personally I like the flannel because it subtly grips the knit baby clothes fabric and provides more stability. It also can provide the batting layer of the quilt if you want a very lightweight t-shirt quilt.
How to Make a T-Shirt Quilt Top from Baby Onesies
Just in case you prefer to read instructions verses watching a video, here's the basic steps to making this baby quilt from onesies:
1 - Cut up the onesies roughly with a rotary cutter. I sliced off all seams bindings, leaving the largest piece of knit fabric from the front, back, and sleeves of the baby clothes.
2 - Cut the pieces into set widths - Using a rotary cutter and ruler, I cut all of my pieces into one of the following widths - 5 inches wide, 6 inches wide, 8 inches wide.
Note - If you are working with larger onesies or baby t-shirts, you may cut wider pieces. Measure and see the sizes most of your garments fall under, then cut them up accordingly.
3 - Cut strips of flannel the same widths - Whatever widths you cut of your garments, cut long strips of flannel the same widths. My quilt ended up with the following strips:
1 - 8-inch strip
1 - 7-inch strip
1 - 6 1/2-inch strip
2 - 5 1/2-inch strips
2 - 5-inch strips
1 - 4 1/2-inch strip
How long should you cut the strips? The length of your desired quilt. I cut mine 48 inches long.
4 - Arrange your quilt - Arrange your cut fabric pieces onto the flannel strips and arrange the strips in the order you'd like your quilt. Overlap the pieces 1/2 inch to accommodate for seam allowance.
It's a good idea to start with your widest pieces first. If you end up with wide pieces left over, they can always be cut down to the smaller sizes.
5 - Stitch and Flip the pieces onto the flannel fabric - I like to roll the onesie pieces and flannel up into a tidy roll to take them from my cutting table to the sewing machine. Then unroll and begin stitching one piece at a time. Here's a super short video for you to see the stitch and flip technique:
I used a walking foot for piecing because the knit fabrics were so thin and tended to stretch and distort with my regular patchwork foot.
6 - Trim up the flannel strips - After piecing, you may notice the knit fabrics occasionally extended beyond the edges of your flannel strips. Trim up the edges with your rotary cutter and ruler.
7 - Piece the strips together - Layer the rows of your quilt right sides together and piece them one set at a time. I used my walking foot for this piecing too and aimed for a 1/4-inch seam allowance.
You might have noticed that seam allowance wasn't very important for this quilt. Some quilts are forgiving like this, but not all quilts can be pieced this way. If you'd like to learn more about quilt piecing and stitching with a precise 1/4-inch seam allowance, please check out my book How to Piece Perfect Quilts.
We've finished the Baby Onesie Quilt Top - Now What?
As I shared in the video above, I could give Betty this quilt top now and let her play with it. The flannel will fray, but the knit fabric will likely hold up okay for a little while.
But if I needed to wash the quilt top, things will get a little weird. The flannel seams will fray badly, get caught and distorted in the washer, and with prolonged abuse (several washes) the seams between the rows will eventually rip open.
At this point this project is a quilt top - it still needs to be layered with backing fabric and quilted.
A quilt is comprised of three layers - quilt top, batting (which could be the flannel), and backing fabric, secured together with quilting stitches that run through all three layers.
It is our quilting stitches that secure our quilts and help them last for years.
Please let me know in the comments below if you'd like to finish this quilt with me by machine quilting it together!
Here is the finished Onesie Baby Quilt Top! I'm so happy to see all these fabrics pieced together in this pretty memory quilt:
Let's go quilt,
Leah Day
Shop for tools and supplies I used in this tutorial:
|
|
|
|
|
8 comments
I really want to see how you sandwiched and backed this quilt! I have 6 memory quilts I want to make and feel like I’ve been researching the best way to do it forever!
I would love to see you add the batting and backing ❤️
Yes I would like to see this quilted!
Hi Leah, I enjoyed your video of Betty’s Baby Onesie Quilt. I’d really like to see a video of you finishing and quilting it.
Yes, please! I’d like to see you finish Baby Betty’s Onsie Quilt. 🥰