08/25/2026
As a cartoonist, I have a lot of T-shirts. My artwork has been on tons of shirts, and my customers have been really cool about giving me some. But lately I’ve been getting a little fussy about my T-shirts, especially the fit. Almost all of my life I was a size LG. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten a little bit of a belly, which I can attribute to beer and tacos. I’m not really fat, I’ve just been used to being skinny and scrawny until recently. Swimming laps and working out occasionally with weights has also made my arms bigger. I don’t like going around with T-shirts that have the sleeves too short. I don’t want to look like a gym bro. This is all to say that I finally found myself wearing a size XL. In addition, I did screen printing for over 35 years, so I know T-shirts, sizes, styles, and fabrics. Most T-shirts nowadays come either in the boxy, old-school style like Beefy T’s or Gildans, or the more form-fitting modern cut. I prefer the newer style that stretch and cling your body more. So recently, I attacked my closet and got rid of all the shirts that I didn’t like the fit. I also got rid of T-shirts that had my cartoon artwork on them, but I didn’t particularly like the shirt color. Finally I got rid of any other shirts that didn’t have my designs on them that I just didn’t like anymore or wear. I just couldn’t throw away the ones that had my artwork on them so then I came up with the idea of making it into a quilt. I asked a local friend and it sounded like a lot of work and it was not inexpensive to get done so like most things these days I went on the Internet and found a place that would do it. When I went to get it made, I needed to have 24 different squares, and I only had about 18. I ended up cutting up 6 of my shirts that still fit and had my designs on them. I even had to buy fabric scissors. I gave away or donated all the rest of the shirts that I didn’t want on the quilt because I only wanted the designs that had my artwork. Anyways, to make a long story longer, it ended up costing about $100 for a 4‘ x 6‘ quilt. If it’s something you’re thinking of doing hit me up and I’ll walk you through some of the details and pitfalls. Overall, it was a fairly easy process and I’m pretty happy with the quality.
