I brought the hankies into the shop and they went straight in to the washing machine. If they could not survive the washing machine, then they weren’t going into the quilt. Next we ironed them. Then we sorted them. There were just a few dark colored hankies and we decided not to use those in the quilt.
In the meanwhile, we all decided that we are delighted with the invention of Kleenex and other facial tissues. It must have been gross to have to use one hankie all day. Icky. The next step was figure out how to make the quilt cool.
First, we began by playing with the hankies. We folded them. We picked them up and set them down. We sorted them by type. We refolded them. Our conclusion: each hankie has its own personality. So we looked at each one as an individual. We folded, draped or left whole as dictated by the design and stains on each.
We had long discussions about what color to use behind the hankies. My older employees wanted white fabric while the younger ones wanted colored fabric. I was making this quilt with a younger woman in mind, thus I chose the colored backings. I also thought that this would let the unique designs and settings of each hankie show up better against its background.
Each hankie was then sewn down onto its fabric block. Some of the hankies were sewn down more extensively while others were only partially sewn down. We generally used white and off-white thread to sew them down.
Planning a T-shirt quilt?
Here are step-by-step directions for ordering your Too Cool T-shirt quilt.
After the hankies were sewn to their background block, we made the quilt exactly like we would any T-shirt quilt.
So, I went to eBay and searched for “vintage hankie lots.” Plenty to choose from! So I purchased two lots and we made another hankie quilt – this time with white background. We followed the same procedure – wash, iron, fold, pin, sew down and make into a quilt.
These two quilts were made with the same procedure and turned out totally different! I still like the colored quilt better, but Dana and Barb love the white quilt.
The white quilt feels more antique like. The quilt needs to be looked at up close because it’s more difficult to distinguish the individual hankies from a distance. I wouldn’t want to let this quilt be used much because it is white and it would get dirty easily. It looks more important. This might be a quilt to hang on a wall or use on a spare bed that does not get visited by a dog or cat.
The colorful quilt is more approachable. I would use this quilt and enjoy the hankies. If I were making a hankie quilt for a young girl, this is how I would make it.
I would sum up the differences between the two quilts as the white quilt is like your grandmother’s china, and the colorful quilt is like your day-to-day dishes.
The third quilt here was made with a pastel color palette. It fits right between the bright colored and white quilts.
We can make a hankie quilt for you! Here's what you need to do
The cost hankie quilt is the cost of a T-shirt quilt of that size. There is an additional small fee per block to cover the extra work to sew each hankie onto the background material.
To get started with us making your hankie quilt, click here to link to the direction page.
Want to learn more about T-shirt quilts? Visit our Learning Center.
We have over 200 articles about all aspects of T-shirt quilts.