Ready for your first quilt? With #2 on the way I decided it was time to tackle my fear of quilts and I couldn’t be happier with the results for my first attempt! In this post, I’ll go over all the steps I used to make my first quilt myself.
My First Quilt Tutorial | Easy Quilt Pattern
For my quilt, the back is flannel to make it extra snuggly. I used a thrift store bed sheet for this quilt so it was super cheap too:)
I love all of the triangles on this quilt – they’re boyish, fun, and not too hard to pull together. Now I just need a little baby to wrap up in it (7 months down, 2 to go!)
on another note…no, we didn’t suddenly move to a lovely home with a balcony overlooking a lake. I made this at my parent’s house in Seattle. We’re still in Provo:)
Oh… and why is this DIY quilt is called the boxer quilt??? well….here’s my fabric pile for this project.
My little brother was getting ready to leave on a 2-year mission to Brazil (read about that here) and was cleaning out his things. My mom and I decided that this huge stack was filled with some pretty cute fabrics. So into the wash they went (maybe twice, with really hot water) and we were all set!
Stay tuned for another boxer project on Wednesday:)
Ready to make your very own boxer quilt? Ok… you could use real fabric too if you want:)
Quilt Instructions | Make Your Quilt
Quilt Step 1: Slice up those boxers along all of the seamlines and cut off the waistbands. Iron them so they’re nice and flat.
My finished diy quilt was 3×4 feet and that seemed about the right size for a crib…
To make a quilt in the same size you need to cut 42 7.75×7.75″ squares from your boxers and then cut each square in half diagonally so you have 48 triangles. Then you need to cut 48 triangles from your contrast fabric (I used a thrifted white sheet).
Quilt Step 2: With right sides together sew 1 patterned triangle to 1 plain triangle along the diagonal using a 1/2″ seam allowance. Iron them all nice and flat so you have 48 squares. Arrange into a quilt with 6 squares across and 8 down.
Quilt Step 3: Sew 6 of your squares together to form your 1st row for the quilt.
Quilt Step 4: Next sew all of your rows together to complete your diy quilt top
Quilt Step 5: Lay out the backside of your quilt (right side down) and put the batting on top of it. Then add your quilt top as the last layer. Baste everything together using safety pins, basting spray, a long-running stitch, etc. I learned the hard way that it’s important to do a good job during this step
Make sure you leave a good 3-4″ of the quilt back on all sides of your quilt top because things will shift around a bit
Quilt Step 6: Quilt away! I am not a patient person so I ran the whole thing through my machine along each diagonal, horizontal and vertical row
I did the quilting through the white triangles so my thread would always match. After you’re done quilting you can trim the batting to match the quilt top and the quilt back so it’s 2″ bigger than the top all the way around
On the back you get a nice, fun pattern:
Quilt Step 7: I had no idea how to bind a quilt so I just went for it using the back as the binding and it worked just fine. Fold your 1st edge over until it meets the quilt top and then fold it over once more.
Fold it in at an angle towards the 2nd edge
Fold the 2nd edge up once so it meets the edge of the quilt top
And then fold it up again and you have a lovely little corner. Is it the right way to do it? No clue, but I have a feeling little man won’t mind
Once you have everything folded up and pinned in place you just topstitch along the 1st foldline all the way around. Easy peasy!
If you’ve never made a quilt before go ahead and try it! This was great fore a beginner. If you use thrift store sheets and a pile of boxers you don’t have to feel bad if it doesn’t turn out:)
Oh and this whole DIY quilt was done in 1 weekend- it’s a quick project.
If you enjoyed the DIY quilt, you might also enjoy some of our other tutorials:
11 Responses
That turned out so cute!! I love all the different plaids!
LOVE this… easy fun and perfect!
I think that re-using your brother’s Used Underwear is disgusting. I would never want a newborn baby anywhere near my brothers underwear! One of the ads that popped up was for men’s boxers. Why is no one shocked!!! I think no one bothers to read. Anyway, it is a really cute quilt. Fabulous design. Excellent sewing. But please, I will buy you new fabric for your baby! Please do not ever recycle underwear for baby things.
That is awesome and perfectly masculine. I love it! And great job on your first quilt.
Brilliant using boxers. It turned out really cute too.
Seriously adorable!
BOXERS!!! What a fun idea!!! 🙂 Haha…. are you sure twice the wash was enough? 😉
What a cute quilt! I have #3 on the way and want to make a blanket for him, but have been struggling with a pattern. I am tired of the plain squares, but don’t want anything too complicated, as cute as they are. I think this will work just right. I don’t have boxers laying around, but I do have a ton of fat quarters and scrap fabric just waiting to be used. (I think my husband would also love it if I actually used some of the fabric that I buy instead of just looking at it:)
Looks fab. Im working on my first quilt just now too. Hope it looks as good as this!! If you want to speed up the process dont cut triangles just cut your squares (7/8th bigger than the finished square size you want) put 2 coordinating squares right sides together then draw a pencil line from corner to corner and sew 1/4″ to each side of line then cut down the horizontal. x
Oooh! great job!!! Very impressive for a first quilt! You should be very proud!!