Rebecca's Hockey Jersey Quilt

Shelby
Jun 14
3 min read

Rebecca reached out to me for a custom quilt using her child's hockey team jerseys. This would be a gift for a family member so I had to keep it a secret until after it was given, which is something I always ask about in my project questionnaires. I'm happy to make sure I don't spill the beans early!

Rebecca gave me 5 jerseys to work with to make a 50x60 inch throw-size quilt. Normally, I would request more shirts for a quilt that size, but with jerseys, 5 was the perfect amount. They have much larger graphic designs, so I'm able to fill a larger area with less material.

There were two red jerseys, two white jerseys, and one blue jersey. They presented a unique design challenge because I had a limited color palette to work with, and basically only three graphics: the player's name and number, the logo for the team, and the city of the team. I spent quite a bit of time considering how I could cut each jersey in a different way to feature different elements, such as the laces at the collar, the shoulder pads, the stripes at the bottoms, and the player number on the sleeves. I tried to cut things in the biggest pieces possible at first and then trim down further as I progressed into the quilt design.

Once I had everything cut apart, I then had to puzzle over how I wanted to alternate the colors and designs in a way that avoided being to repetitive and would maximize the contrast between each of the colors.

After I had arranged and re-arranged everything about a million times, I felt I had figured out an arrangement that maximized each of the individual components, and started pinning and sewing the large jerseys pieces into place. I then encountered a new challenge: some of the elements I really wanted to keep (the collars, the laces, the shoulder pads) were VERY thick. I had to go slowly and carefully to make sure I got everything securely sewn in place and didn't break any needles or damage my sewing machine by accidentally going over the metal grommets holding the laces in place.

Finally I applique'd the smallest pieces in place as accents in the design, which allowed me to use almost 80% of the total jersey material originally provided to me.

I gave back all the leftover pieces of fabric so that Rebecca would have them on hand in case anything were to cause damage to the quilt, it would be able to be repaired with identical material.

Rebecca had asked for either a red or blue fabric for the back of the quilt. I found a dark blue fabric which had white stars on it and I thought it perfectly coordinated with the stars in the team logo! As always, I pre-washed the fabric with a color catcher to prevent the fabric dyes from discoloring the shirts given to me by the client. You can see the amount of dye absorbed by the color catcher!

The grey hairs and careful progress were worth the final result! Rebecca and her husband told me that one of their favorite things about the finished quilt is that it's so OBVIOUSLY made from hockey jerseys at first glance! This is one of the best reasons for getting a memory quilt made by a craftsman with a smaller operation.

The large companies that crank out quilts super cheaply and quickly can do that because they use cutting presses, which stamp out identical shapes from all the shirts, regardless of how large or small the graphics are, or interesting elements such as laces and collars, which would add unique character to the finished quilt. I'm very proud of the level of detail and individuality in every quilt I make!