T-Shirt Quilts

When I first heard there was a company called Campus Quilt out there that made custom quilts out of t-shirts you already own, I was more than intrigued. In fact, I had decided this was the perfect way to finally control the massive amounts of t-shirts that have been taking up precious space in the closets and in storage.

Most people I know have a ton of t-shirts, whether it’s from high school, college, concerts or sports. If they are anything like me, they have bags full of t-shirts they just can’t bear to part with, yet don’t really get worn regularly. Why not take all those old shirts, preserve them in a whole new way, and create a conversation piece you will actually use?

Here’s how Campus Quilt works: you go to the website and decide on what quilt and which size suits your needs the best and add it to your cart. Once the quilt design is in your cart and you complete check out, a non-refundable deposit is charged to your card (the remaining balance is billed only when your quilt is shipped) and the quilt creation kit is then sent to your door. And then once the kit is received, the real fun happens.

You put stickers on the shirts in the order they would be placed on the quilt. There are optional cotton sashing, or borders, between the shirt squares to help break up the color blocks a bit more and provide a repetitive pattern to help make the design more cohesive. For the backing, you can choose a soft flannel in the provided fabric sample swatches.

The quilts have amazing attention to detail and it’s apparent upon first glance. All the shirts are centered and leveled in the squares. Since customization really is their thing, they welcome all kinds of suggestions and special instructions, but you really should trust them. The blanket really looks unified as a quilt should, but yet still has all the charm of the original shirts.

Price: From $129 and up, with 16 square quilts at $179.