Old Graphic Tees

If you have a bunch of them, you could make a t-shirt quilt. There's a class on Craftsy on how to do this, or you could maybe find directions online. I thought about doing this with a stack of my husband's old favorite t-shirts. Never got around to it, though.

Melanii said:

Is there a way to use like a white t-shirt (from Hanes or something) and fuse the graphic onto it without it looking dumb?

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In order of easiest to hardest:

Iron-on.
You can buy fusible interfacing from fabric stores to glue two pieces of fabric together. For t-shirts you'll want to ask for a lightweight woven interfacing, which is unfortunately a bit more expensive than non-woven but soft and supple instead of stiff and scratchy. I'd suggest hemming the edges of the graphic before attaching it to the front of the new shirt. You can buy strips of lace/sequins/faux fur/whatever to stitch around the edge if you think it needs a border.

No-sew knotted panel.
Cut out a rectangle from a new shirt and use this technique to replace it with the panel of your choice. Measure carefully!
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-No-Sew-T-Shirt-Blanket/

Stitch the graphic into a panel of a new shirt.
Something like this, or maybe this.
Unless you have prior experience sewing knit fabrics, I'd suggest using a button-up or non-stretchy shirt. Knits can be frustrating - they stretch, and curl, and end up being 5cm longer on the left side even though they were cut with exactitude.

Bonus round: Messenger bag
Aaaand again with the iron-on interfacing, which can be used to affix the design to the front flap of a messenger bag. (For this you can use the cheaper non-woven sheets, it won't matter if they're scratchy.) Backpacks are - from personal experience - a pain in the neck to sew. I don't recommend it unless you have a LOT of time and enthusiasm.

Good luck! If you have questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them.

Orianna2000 said:

If you have a bunch of them, you could make a t-shirt quilt. ....

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Straight out of Twilight, don't recall which book, had to be after the first one.

I do think it's a cool idea though.

MaeZe said:

Straight out of Twilight, don't recall which book, had to be after the first one.

I do think it's a cool idea though.

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There was a t-shirt quilt in Twilight? How . . . interesting.

A t-shirt quilt doesn't look much like a traditional quilt. It's more like a knit jersey blanket, but made of patchwork squares from different t-shirts. I imagine you still have to line it with fleece or batting, to make it warm and soft, and you'd have to back it, and bind the edges. So, more trouble than you probably want to go through. I still contemplate the idea occasionally, for my husband, but I just don't have the energy these days to start such a giant project.

If you're going to attach the shirt panels to a bag or hoodie, you'll probably want double-sided fusible interfacing, which will meld the t-shirt panel to the other fabric. (Regular interfacing only has glue on one side.) Or you can interface the t-shirt panel just for stability, and then applique it onto the bag/hoodie. They do make knit interfacing, which is moderately stretchy (I've used it to stabilize the edges of doll t-shirts), but I don't know if that's what you'd use for this kind of project or not. Never done anything like this, personally.