If you’re the proud owner of a T-shirt quilt, whether youmade your own t-shirt quilt or entrusted the project to our experienced team at Project Repat, you know that it’s filled from top to bottom with memories. As such, you’re probably afraid of dumping your quilt in the wash even when laundry day rolls around. Not to worry — in this post, we’ll answer the burning question “Can you wash a T-shirt quilt?” and teach you everything you need to know about how to wash one correctly.
At Project Repat, we’re experts in the T-shirt quilt game. We’re the most established T-shirt quilt company in the U.S. with years of experience under our belts, which means there’s no better option for anyone wonderingwhere to get a T-shirt quilt made. We’ve made over 500,000 T-shirt quilts, and you can trust that we know how to preserve a T-shirt quilt for the long run.
So, let’s jump right into the question at hand today: can you wash a T-shirt quilt?
Yes, you can! Think about it, haven’t you washed your T-shirts before? How about your blankets? In essence, a T-shirt quilt is the grand union of a bunch of T-shirts, a backing material that forms the “blanket” side, and the batting, or stuffing, in between them.
Individually, all these materials are washable, so putting them together doesn’t necessarily affect their washability. However, it’s important to note that joining them together does present a few complications, which is why it's important to know how to wash a T-shirt quilt.
Your T-shirt quilt is made up of many different T-shirts, with the exactnumber of t-shirts for a quilt depending on how big it is. Chances are, each of these T-shirts went through different levels of care throughout their lives. Washing your T-shirt quilt correctly is important for preserving it in the long run. Here are some reasons you need to learn how to wash a T-shirt quilt correctly:
The first time you wash your T-shirt quilt, make sure to give it an all-over inspection first. Check for any stray thread and clip them close to the fabric, so they don’t catch on anything while washing. You can machine wash your T-shirt quilt on a gentle cycle with cold or lukewarm water. Use a mild detergent and don’t use bleach.
It’s best to wash your quilt in a washing machine that doesn’t have a center agitator, as it can end up pulling on and twisting the stitching and the quilt. In addition, make sure your washing machine can actually fit your quilt — if it has a smaller drum, don’t stuff it to the brim with a full queen-size quilt. This can damage the machine and your quilt won’t even get properly cleaned. Instead, head over to the nearest laundromat. They typically have bigger, high-capacity drums.
After washing, you can either hang dry or tumble dry on low. If you’re tumble drying, consider taking out your quilt in the middle of the cycle and rearranging it to ensure the entire surface gets dried out properly.
Generally, the first time a fabric is washed, it’ll shrink. At Project Repat, we always pre-wash our high-quality backing materials, so you don’t have to worry about shrinkage from one of our quilts. However, if your quilt is handmade (or it’s a gift and you don’t know where it’s from), you should anticipate a bit of shrinkage. If you see a tag on it that says “dry-clean only,” it likely hasn’t been pre-washed.
Shrinkage can make for an unpleasantly lumpy quilt — the backing material shrinks and the T-shirt side doesn’t, so the batting trapped in between will be compressed in the smaller space. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do once your quilt has shrunk.
The same instructions apply for washing your T-shirt quilt routinely:
From time to time, it’s a good idea to inspect your quilt for minor problems like small holes or seams coming loose. Patching these before you put your quilt through the wash will prevent the problem from worsening.
Before we finish, here are a few more tips for making sure your T-shirt quilt lasts a lifetime:
The next time someone asks you, “Can you wash a T-shirt quilt?,” you can now give a resounding, enthusiastic “yes.” You can easily wash a T-shirt quilt as long as you exercise proper caution — machine wash with cold water on a gentle cycle, don’t use bleach, don’t overcrowd the washing machine, and either hang dry or tumble dry low.
Now, if you’re looking to get your own quilt made, stick with the #1custom T-shirt quilt company online. Flip through our testimonials for a peek at what your T-shirt quilt could look like when you entrust your memories to us — we work hard to give our customers exactly what they want. Get your ownmemory blanket today!