Planning an Amazing Baby Clothes Quilt: Step-by-Step

Choose the Recipient of the Quilt

Before deciding which baby clothes to include, take a moment to think about who the quilt is for. Is it a gift for the parents to cherish now, filled with memories of their little one’s early days? Or is it meant for the child to grow up with, offering a tangible connection to their babyhood? This choice can guide how you approach the selection process.

For the Parents

If you are the parent or if you are making a quilt for a parent or the parents, you can combine the clothing of multiple children into one quilt. You also will want to try to choose items from each child evenly so the quilt reflects each child’s babyhood.

For the Child

Carefully sort the clothing out among the children. Make sure you have the right items in each child's quilt. Fortunately, the children will not remember each item. If there is a mix up, it won't be the end of the world as it might be for a quilt made with their T-shirts when they graduate from high school.

We suggest getting a basket or box for each child while you are sorting out the clothing.  If more than one child wore an item, put those items into a separate bag. Label the bag “For Use in Multiple Quilts”. Then write a note on each item as to whose quilt it needs to go in.

For example, if you have a blanket that needs to go into both Ann and Mary’s quilt, write on the note “Ann and Mary”. This will tell us to cut two blocks from the shirt and put one in each child's quilt.

The quilt below is for four girls. Each child's clothing were put in their own section. Right now, they are enjoying the quilt as a family. When the girls grow up and have their own child, we will divide the quilt up into 4 small quilts. You can see that the sections are divided with a thin line of pink fabric. 

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Decide If You Want a Simple or Complex Baby Clothes Quilt

Simple Baby Clothes Quilt

Our simple baby clothes quilts are made using a block or two from each clothing item. These blocks are just blocks of fabric without any special adornments. 

Our simple baby clothes quilts do not include appliquéing or sewing down of items such as necklines, collars, bibs, hats, socks, outfits or other such items. 

Although these quilts appear relativity simple, they do require a very skilled sewer and quilter to make them look right. As a result, they cost more than a typical T-shirt quilt. 

Complex Clothes Quilt

Our complex baby clothes quilts also use a block from each item, but these blocks may include zippers, buttons, bows, collars and other adornments. We also include items that will need to be stitched onto or appliquéd onto another block of fabric. These items include entire outfits, dresses, socks, soft shoes, bibs, hats and bloomers.  

The result is an interactive quilt with a 3D feel to it. Buttons can be unbuttoned, zippers zip and unzip. Stuffed animals feet and arms are free to move. These quilts are wonderful. 

A complex baby clothes quilt takes much, much more work than a simple one. The variety of fabrics mixed with the 3D items makes sewing and quilting these quilts very difficult.  Thus, they are priced at a higher rate than a simple baby clothes quilt. Information about baby clothes quilt pricing. 

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Planning a T-shirt quilt?
Here are step-by-step directions for ordering your Too Cool T-shirt quilt.

Select Which Items You Want to Include in Your Quilt

We can use just about anything that is soft and washable. Here are some items you might not had considered including in your quilt.

Baby Shoes

Look for ones with soft soles. The rubber-soled shoes are not useable. (Complex style only)

Stuffed Toys 

We remove the stuffing and flatten it out. (Complex style only)

Blankets and Bedding 

This can include blankets, sheets and crib bumpers.

Socks, Booties and Hats

Each of these are great items to put into a quilt. (Complex style only)

Special Bibs

You can use bibs in the quilt. Look for the special ones and the ones that are less stained (unless the stains are important). (Complex style only)

Here's a comprehensive list of some of the items you can include:

• Bibs
• Socks
• Baby slipper
• Overalls with shirt underneath
• Baby blankets
• Onesies
• Dresses
• Ruffle-butt tights
• Headband
• Baby shoe
• Stuffed animals
• Bloomers
• Whole and parts of dresses

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Choose How Many Items to Include in Your Quilt

This is a very rough estimate.The number of items needed will depends on how much we use from any one item. The more we use from each item, the fewer items you will need.

For example, we might use a larger block from a blanket than we would from a onesie with a small design on the front.

Most people will send us what belongs in the quilt and tell us what size they are hoping to get. We will work with you to make the quilt the size you would like with what you have sent to us. 

But don't send us 100 items and expect to have a lap size quilt made. 

Do You Think You Might Have Too Many Items?

First separate out the items that must be in the quilt. Then, in a second pile place your second string items. Send us both groups.

We will first cut from the first group. When we finish cutting the first group, we will stop and check the size those items will make. If we need to, we will then cut from the second bag until we reach the size you want made.

If you only want a small piece from each item, you will need a lot. But if you have a number of larger items that you want whole, you will need less. 

If you send too much and the quilt is way larger than you want, we can cut many of the print blocks smaller.  A king size baby clothes quilt might take 100 to 150 items.

I don’t know for sure how many items you will need. It will depend on how we use the items and how much fabric the items can yield. But we will be working with you as we figure the size of the quilt. 

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Planning a T-shirt quilt?
Here are step-by-step directions for ordering your Too Cool T-shirt quilt.

Preparing Your Baby Clothes to Send to Your Quilt Maker

Here are the rest of the process of getting your baby clothes marked and ready to send out to your quilt maker. Note, these directions are our directions. If you are using another quilt maker, you will need to look at their specific directions.

Wash and Dry the Clothing

We like to work with clean clothes. Even if your items were packed up clean, please wash them again. It’s not a lot of fun to have to work with musty smelling clothing.

Please do not use detergents with perfumes or dryer sheets. This just makes us sneeze and get congested.

Stains… yep, baby clothes tend to have stains. We will look for areas on the clothing without stains. And if it is too stained, we will work with you to decide if the item is important enough to include even though it’s stained. 

Mark What You Don’t Want Us to Use

We ask that you put a blue painter's tape X on any part of an item you don’t want used. With baby clothes, typically there is not much to mark for us not to use. You don’t need to mark stains, we try to avoid them.

The more flexibility we have, the more interesting quilt you will have.

If you are planning a complex quilt, you are welcome to separate out the dresses or other items you would like to use whole or as much as possible.

It’s important to go through each item and decide if it belongs in the quilt. Please don’t just toss everything in a box and call it good. This approach tends to end up with items in the quilt that don’t belong.

Box Up Your Items

Here’s an article about boxing up your items. It has great information that will help your box arrive here in one piece.

Print Out an Order Form

On the order form, be sure to mark that you want a baby clothes quilt and check in if you want it simple or complex. Note that we cannot make a double-sided or stained-glass baby clothes quilt.

Here’s a link to the order form. 

E-mail or Call Your Quilter to Tell Them to Expect Your Items

The e-mail address and phone number are on the order form.

Ship to the Address at the Top of the Order Form

For your peace of mind, we suggest you get a tracking number if your shipment doesn't come with one.