t-shirt blankets

Having 4 kids who pass clothes down the line once they are outgrown, and generous friends who pass things along too, I have a huge amount of clothes stashed in various places just waiting for the kids to grow into them.

There seems to be a surplus of t-shirts - I mean, who really needs 30+ t-shirts in their drawer?  So when packing away the summer clothes last week, I had a lightbulb moment - grab a bunch of each child's favourite t-shirts which are now too small, and make a keepsake - a t-shirt blanket!

I started out by cutting 10 inch x 10 inch squares from the t-shirts with my rotary cutter, cutting through both front and back together to produce 2 squares from each t-shirt, and trying to keep any design fairly central to the square.  I suspect when I get around to doing this for my younger 2, I may have to go down to 8 x 8 or even 6 x 6 since the t-shirts will be smaller.

I went for my old favourite, blanket stitch - well, it is a blanket after all!  Here I have put together the first 6 pieces.

I'm not yet sure how big to make these, but I think at least 6 x 8 squares at the 10 inch size.  They will also have to be backed so I will either get some fleece, or if I have enough t-shirts and time I may even make the other side the same as the first - we'll see, as it will effectively be doubling my work...

My kids love to snuggle in the family room while watching a movie, and I think these will be ideal for snuggling once they are finished!  I plan to make them one each and wrap them up for under the Christmas tree - this of course means I can only work on them in the evening once the kids are in bed, so maybe it's just as well I started in September!

Nikki x