20 Shirts You Should Save To Make a Memorable T-Shirt Blanket
It's amazing how many memories we store in a simple t-shirt. The sight, feel, and smell of your old favorite shirts can bring back an entire time period in your life. You remember who you were, how you felt, and what you cared about when you wore that shirt. And a t-shirt blanket lets you keep all those old favorites even after your favorite shirts are too shabby to wear.
Parents who know this secret often plan a t-shirt memory blanket for their babies, starting with their very first favorite graphic onesie. Whether you're making a t-shirt blanket for yourself or a young child, there are some great memories to save in the form of shirts. Let's take a look at the top 20-lifetime landmark shirts that will make a beautiful memory blanket map of any person's life.
Early Milestones
Most t-shirt blankets are made by the shirt-owner and begin with shirts from around high-school. You know, those first shirts you wear to death instead of growing out of. But if you're making a memory blanket for a child or digging up memories from old boxes, don't forget to save up these special memories in shirt form:
Favorite Graphic Onesie or Bib
First Favorite Shirt
First Printed Blanket
First Printed Halloween Costume
First Day of School Shirt
Babies often have a signature onesie, bib, or pajamas that are featured in tons of baby pictures. Anything with a central image in the style of a t-shirt can be saved for the blanket. Little graphic-Ts or cartoon Halloween costumes with a central image are great memories to be saved for later. If your child has a favorite printed blanket covered in trains, butterflies, or superheroes, keep a square for the blanket. And don't forget to save each year's first day of school or a picture-day shirt.
Grade-School Memory Shirts
Many of our best memories are collected in elementary school when the days seem golden and we grow out of clothes every year or two. Favorite shirts come and go, but the memories last forever. Retrieve your own childhood shirts or keep those outgrown favorites for your children to remember as part of the blanket.
First Shirt You Personally Tie-Died
Extracurricular Team T-Shirts
Field Trip Shirts
Summer Camp T-Shirts
Sports Team Jerseys
There are so many great experiences we collect in grade-school. The first shirts we design or tie-die ourselves, for example, will never be forgotten. There are also tons of opportunities to get a group shirt for field trips, summer camps, sports teams, extracurricular classes, dance teams, and many more. Every commemorative shirt is worth saving to remember why you got it and who was there with you.
Personal Favorites
Of course, the real fuel for the t-shirt blanket will be all those favorite graphic T's we collect during elementary, middle, and high-school years. These are the shirts we never stop wearing. The ones we wear to death, or tragically set aside when they are outgrown. They are shirts that remind us of friends, jokes, and that poignant time growing up when graphic T's were an everyday thing.
First Favorite Graphic T-Shirt
Favorite Band Shirts
Funny T-Shirts
Super-Hero and Other Graphic T's
All-Time Favorites You Can't Stop Wearing
These are all the shirts you remember, and those that will remind you when your children wear them. All the super-hero shirts, the funny saying shirts, the snarky and ironic shirts that we can't help but buy at kiosks at the mall. Every band you've ever loved, and the band shirts you love from bands you've never even heard of go in this category. Topping this group are those shirts that you (or your children) wear until they either fall to pieces or just can't be fit into anymore.
Specialty Shirts and Non-Shirt Panels
Last but not least, those once-in-a-lifetime shirts. Some shirts don't fit into a category except that they mean something and can be made into part of the blanket. You'll know these shirts when they roll by because they'll be associated with special one-time memories worth keeping.
One-Time Event Shirts
Contest Winner T-Shirts
Tote Bags
Cloth Crafts
Other Fabric-Printed Memories
The most notable will be event shirts. Any one-time events like concerts, charity projects, or instances where you caught a shirt-cannon shirt at a ball game automatically fall into the "save for blanket" category. If you ever win a contest and get a shirt, keep that cotton for the memories. But it also applies to other printed things that matter. If you had a favorite tote bag or printed messenger bag, keep the panel of printed canvas for your blanket. If you embroidered or silk-printed fabric as part of a craft project, keep and blanket it! Anything with a central or printed image on fabric that relates to your memories can be made into the t-shirt blanket. You can work any special non-shirt panels into a cool pattern.
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Making a t-shirt blanket is an incredible way to take those old favorite shirts out of the drawer and keep them forever; without wearing those shirts to shreds. From outgrown favorites to oversized event T's, each fabric memory is a tangible reminder of golden moments gon by. Whether you are making a memory blanket for yourself or collecting a shirt to commemorate the life of your child, contact us for more t-shirt blanketing tips.