If you can't bring yourself to throw your old hockey jerseys away, a Too Cool T-shirt Quilts is your solution.
We make quilts with T-shirts – sure. But we also make them with jerseys and mesh materials. This means that we make quilts from hockey jerseys.
We can mix jerseys with regular T-shirt or sweatshirt materials. If you have a few jerseys and other items, we can make you a great quilt.
Below are 9 things you need to know for planning your hockey quilt.
Are you planning on using the front, back and arms of your jerseys? If so, you will need fewer of them than you would for a standard T-shirt quilt.
Do you have a lot of jerseys and don't want a king size quilt? If so, consider how much of each jersey to use. How many times do you need the player's name and number? You might consider using one side of each jersey to help keep the size down.
What do you do if you don't have a lot of jerseys and want a large quilt? In this case, you could choose to use everything.
Get specifics on how many T-shirts or jerseys on our website.
Hockey jersey necklines are much more fun than regular necklines. This is because of the lacing closing the neckline. I love to include them. They help your quilt say, "Hockey!"
Most of your jerseys are either all or partly mesh fabric. Make sure the quilter you chose to make your quilt can use mesh in their quilts. Because of how some quilters work, mesh fabric is unusable. Too Cool T-shirt Quilts can use mesh without issue.
Your hockey jersey quilt will be heavier than the average T-shirt quilt. This is because we put a second layer of material behind mesh jerseys. We must "fill in" the holes somehow! Also, jersey material is just heavier.
Planning a T-shirt quilt?
Here are step-by-step directions for ordering your Too Cool T-shirt quilt.
Hockey players normally have two jerseys with identical graphics. One for home and one for away games. The home jerseys are typically white, and the away jerseys colored. Two different colored jerseys with the same graphics create another decision. What to include or exclude.
If you have too many jerseys, we would suggest using the colorful jersey. This will make the quilt more colorful. If you do use both jerseys, we will try to space them out evenly. This way they are not right next to one another.
Chances are that your jerseys have numbers on them. Do you want to use every number? Probably not if you have a lot of hockey jerseys. We suggest you use one or two of each number you played under. More than that, your quilt is more about the numbers and not the teams.
We can separate the name and the number from one another. This way you can use the name without the number. Read about using numbers in your quilt here.
Perhaps only once if your quilt is larger than you want. By removing duplicate names and numbers, we can decrease the size of your quilt. If size isn't an issue, you can use it as many times as you want.
If you have a lot of pieces with the player's name, we can play with their placement. For example, we can run your name across the top and bottom of the quilt. This would act as a “header & footer” on your quilt.
We would suggest using some of these in your quilt. Mixing in some of these smaller graphics will make your quilt more interesting. Without little blocks, your jerseys would line up in columns.
If you don't have any small blocks, we can add small blank blocks of colored material into the quilt. This way we have a mix of large and small blocks. Sometimes we use the stripes on the jerseys for these fillers.
You might have other items left over from your hockey playing days you want to include in your quilt.
We can use magnetic snap on letters such as a captain “C." We sew the back of the letter to the backside of the that jersey. This lets you snap the letter on and off the quilt. It also allows you to remove the letter for washing.
We remove any pins from jerseys or other items before we make the quilt. You can choose to pin them back on after the quilt is complete.
Yes, we can use pieces from socks in your quilt. We won't use the entire sock, but we will use a piece from the calf area. We try to highlight a logo or stripes.
Hockey is a gear intensive sport. To tote around the gear, most hockey players have a very large bag or two. If a bag has a screen-printed or embroidered emblem, we can use it in your quilt.
Any athlete can end up with ball caps. We can include the logos from those caps in your quilt. We add a per cap/hat charge to the cost of a quilt. Read more about baseball caps here.
Traditional style T-shirt quilts have one size block. What happens if that one block size is smaller than the designs on your jersey? That graphic on your jersey gets cropped off. That can be a heart breaker!
A Too Cool T-shirt Quilt uses many different block sizes. We don't have an upper size limit. No matter how large a design on your jersey, we can use the entire design without cutting any part of it off.
The style of quilt you choose will have a huge impact on your quilt. We suggest you understand this before you have your quilt made. Read here about the different styles of T-shirt quilts.
We can use your hockey jerseys with any other fabrics that you may have. We can use graphics from T-shirts, sweatshirts, bags, stocking hats, socks, and jackets. They can be mixed in with your jerseys. We can’t use your hockey stick, puck, or skates. But those wouldn't make for a comfy quilt anyway!
Other quilt makers ignore the fact that the mesh is full of holes. Something must go behind the fabric. We have seen mesh fabric in quilts where you can see the batting through the holes in the block. This is a huge no-no.
Here at Too Cool T-shirt Quilts, we enjoy using mesh material. We know how to work with it. And we love how the nylon adds a nice texture to the quilt.
We can work with you to make an awesome hockey jersey quilt. A quilt that you can use. A quilt that will become an heirloom.
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