Boy, did I get lucky! There was an estate sale next door to us. The gentleman wore an XXL. His dress shirts were mostly 100% cotton plaids, ginghams (Neiman Marcus) and even some florals from Liberty of London. They were only $2 each, so I bought 30 of them! Got a great variety. They are all washed, dried and now I’m beginning the button removing and breakdown. I’m so excited!

I haven't watched in months and need to catch up after traveling. Miss your smiling face and your editor's side notes. Spiritual waves as we drive by on our way to a job in New Orleans.

Well, I did it! Bought my first stash of thrift store men’s shirts. We’ll see what happens next. 😊

So last week I bought a beautiful blueish mauve and burgundy plaid XL shirt from my local op shop. It was $4 which is very good value here in Australia as some other op shops are 2 or 3 times that price. When I brought it home my husband got his eye on it and decided it was too good to chop up. He wore it to church on Easter Sunday. He even offered me a swap with any other shirt in his cupboard. Oh we'll plenty more out there in the op shops.

I deconstructed my first shirt today! Thank you Cathy!

I think that the love of colour is what drives us all. The “gathering” of what we love is very satisfying and soothing. I LOVE going through my stash when making my next quilt! It gives me so much pleasure! Love your videos! XO

Hello sweet Lady. Yesterday I went thrifting and took my samples with me intended on picking a handful of shirts but my goodness. I came home with 23 beautiful shirts and 6 of them were those 3x 100% linen and they were lovely. I am excited beyond words to get started on the Magnolia quilt. Thank you for the precious time you and your husband spend making these lovely videos and blessings to you and your family.💞

Love seeing your “happiness in a tote” collection of lovely fabrics! You’ve got a rainbow of yummy colors from which to create lovely quilts. And bravo everyone who has taken up Cathy’s thrifting method of acquiring shirts for their fabrics. It absolutely helps keep these beautiful fabrics out of landfills, and gives them a new purpose/ life as quilted comfort and art. Love that!!! ❤️ 🌎 👏🏼

Haha! Paul’s editing cracks me up!

Oh my yes-shirts do have a lot of fabric in them. My stash is in dresser drawers. (Two dressers!) I just finished a king size blue and white quilt, mostly blue. I broke down five of my husband’s old shirts to include, bought maybe four additional quarter yards of fabric and used about 25 different blue fabrics I had accumulated. My drawer of blue fabric is just as full as when I started! It’s because of those shirts! How can a king size quilt not use up a drawer of fabric?!

❤ thank you , so enjoyed how to not spend loads and yet make a beautiful quilt ,for my daughter, xx

I just bought my first 100% linen shirt in pink! I have no idea what to do with it, but probably need to head back to some of your linen videos. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that I’m a quilter, not just a fabric collector! 😂

Paul: you had a hot caption game going this video 💕👍😎

A lotta Prince…always a good idea 🏆

At your suggestion a few videos back, I find myself doing fabric pulls from my totes just to dream of the possibilities. This satisfies my need to play without diving into yet another new project. This has allowed me to continue to focus on my current WIPs.

Most of my thrifted shirts are blue. I've been trying to expand my stash to include more colors. Today I thrifted a lovely lavender gingham. 😊

It has taken me many many years to build up my stash. I love thrifted or gifted fabrics. I hate waste. My last haul was from a gal who could no longer quilt. I received 275 yards of fabric plus a medium size tote of her 14 UFOs and scraps. It took me a week to sort the yardage. I didn’t touch fabric for awhile. 🙂 I still need to work on the scraps. I feel so blessed.

One of my quilty friends sent me a facebook marketplace link to a quilt estate sale! it was $10/lb... and the original quilter had good taste! ... sorta built myself a stash all in one go!

😂😂 ‘prints’ - prince images, 😂😂 …❤y’alls sense of humor

Your wedding shot is so adorable! I don't need help adding to my stash, but this was fun anyway.

I am blessed enough to have a sister who has graciously given me material to work with. I hope things are going your way.

I worked through Karen Brown's decluttering series in January and touched every thing in my sewing room. I organized my fabric by amount, which is okay for large cuts (a yard or more), but not as great for smaller pieces. I loved seeing your beautiful fabrics organized by color in your totes and think that I am going to reorganize the smaller amounts of fabric. My first 4 thrifted shirts are washed and ready to break down. I loved Paul's mirror image shot of you and had to 'rewind' to make sure that it wasn't actually showing the other side of the room. Very clever! Thanks for all that you do for us.

Oh I have to organize my stash by color...I have a lot. I appreciate the reminder. I will make it my summer goal. Nice to see an early picture of team catbird! Hope you both have a great weekend! Thank you for sharing.

Always inspiring ❤ I absolutely love the wedding photo. Hope all is well with your family.

On a trip to another part of the USA and can't wait to visit the thrift stores here. Oh the possibilities. And we drove so have room for the purchases.

Awhile back you were at your sewing table. I thought you were working with men's boxers. You were talking about plaid and slippery fabric. I thought this you tube is taking a turn on a new direction, oh my.

😂I found three absolutely perfect shirts for an Edydta Setar sew along I’m participating in. The reason I’m laughing is because I bought the shirts brand new! The price was right, they’re XL and just the right complimentary blues. I do wholeheartedly support buying from thrift shops but now that I’m on the prowl for men’s shirts I take them wherever I find them.

Thank you for taking the time to share with us.

Loved the video and your wonderfully curated totes! I was thinking about the challenge of finding prints to match plains or colours to fill the gaps in a colour run - I have a pretty good eye, but sometimes you need a sample with you. I mostly use yardage, so I often cut small pieces and if I'm feeling organised, stick them onto a piece of card to take shopping with me. (If I'm not feeling organised, they are just in a jumble in the bottom of my purse!). Then I realised that if you are using shirts, you have the perfect solution: the offcut from the cuff with the buttonhole! You can use the buttonhole to thread them onto a key ring, safety pin, stitch holder or even a piece of ribbon or string, then you have them all together and then won't get lost or fray out :)

I may not use mens shirts, but I do thrift at a couple of yard sales. One of them is a lovely older lady who inherited all of her friends’ stash (several friends, I might add) when they passed away. It is a treasure trove of yardage, fat quarters, rulers, patterns, you name it. It helped me to build my stash and also gave me yardage to practice quilting techniques with. Yard sales are a great way to find thrifted fabric.

Just got a package from my aunt who's friend used to quilt but does not do it anymore. She saw the quilt I made for my aunt and thought her stuff would be in the right hands with me. Lovely fabrics in there :) I also like to shop from ebay if people are clearing out their stash. And amazingly one day you'll just find the right place for the "ugly" fabric. 5 thrifted shirts also entered my stash and two of them already went into projects (partially). I barely by new fabric when starting a new project since I can make it work.with my stash fabric. But I like a good one piece flannel backing and thats something I might by new (although I keep my eyes open for flannel bedsheets or shirts but haven't found them yet. Also wanted to add, that your take on scraps or crumbs would be interesting. I'm just in the making of a colour coordinated crumb quilt (pieces of 3/4 to 2"), where I sew the pieces on adding maschine paper, cut strips of 2.5" and sew them.together in a spiral. The white is already gone, now I'm on to the yellows :)

Hi Cathy! Love your energy! I just reviewed this video; although I'm already a huge thrifted shirt convert. I've also discovered great prints in pjs & even in kids shirts. I also usually back my quilts with thrifted name brand sheets. The fabric is high quality, great prints and goodness almighty cheap! Keep up the fun videos. K.

Cathy, I always find your videos enjoyable and very helpful! Hey, Paul, I think you are the one responsible... I love the little comments but really enjoyed PRINCE pics for Prints!!! Thank you both for all the fun. Thanks for sharing wedding pic, too. God Bless

When the picture of Prince popped up I had to lol.😊

Y'all make the simplest topics so entertaining and informative. Your totes even gave me a jolt of happiness at the lovingly organized colorful rows. The totes looked so well balanced and neat. I've been watching the stash grow and it still surprises me that you can get such a lovely variety of colors in men's shirts. They compliment modern quilting fabric so well. I'm in a curious mood. Have you talked about small scraps yet & what is your limit? I cant remember if you've gotten to that issue yet. Are the completed project leftovers mixed in with recent purchases? What part of the shirt do you tend to use first? Do you try to maximize the size of leftovers by leaving the back for last or do most of the patterns you've made had large pieces that needed the larger areas? You don't have to answer all these questions. I'm sure you'll cover them eventually & I can wait. Your shirt stash and scrap stash is going to outrun mine in no time 😉 Have a great weekend!

LOVE your wedding photo ~ thank you for sharing. You and Paul are a beautiful couple ❤

Love this so much!!!

My stash building has mostly been through my local Goodwill Outlet, which just up and moved across the river!!!! It was less than 10 minutes from my house and work and now it is over 25 minutes away!! I am so bummed because it was so cheap!! Thank you for always sharing, it is inspiring for so many of us.

The blue white and yellow quilt is one of my favorites.

Who would have thought that you might find a pink gingham shirt 🤣🤣🤣 and I think it must be so good to have a KZfaq channel that makes it necessary to keep buying shirts 🤣🤣 Me 🤷‍♀️ I just keep buying them because I watch your wonderful videos 😃😂 I’m so missing patchworking though 😢 I broke both my wrists at the beginning of March so, although I have been able to sew some of my UFOs I can’t use a rotary cutter - well I tried again yesterday but my hands protested 😢 Still I keep collecting shirts, and I can break them down 😊 Hopefully soon I’ll be able to cut them up 🤷‍♀️🤣🤣 Take great care of each other. Great video 👏👏🇬🇧

I sooooooo look forward each week to your videos, but keep thinking “ she can’t possibly find anything new to say about mens dress shirts this week”. But you do and I am so so so glad! I now have two large full totes of broken down shirt fabrics and will use them in many of my future projects. Thank you so much for the nudge to go down the shirt fabric path. Time is now a hurdle as I have two 90+ yr old parents that require my time which of course narrows my crafting time. So my solution is to spend as much time with them as I can while now doing smaller quilting projects, i.e pillows, bags and lap throws. All using shirt fabrics. Love them!!!!

This video is inspiring me to go find some men's shirts to bump up my fabric stash. Quilting fabric is so expensive. It's great to see a viable alternative.

Plus also seeing “y’all’s” typed out makes me smile

I love your videos I’m a thrift store quilter! ❤️❤️

Oh wait. We're supposed to have stash? Don't be taking that shame away from my happy addiction. Lol. Its what keeps my stash from out growing my one sewing room.

You know I'm hooked❤❤

Wonderful as always! When I see my growing stash of gingham and think why am I collecting gingham from cut down men's thrifted shirts, I think of you 🍎✂ ☀💚 🫐🐦🍇

Nice story of your stash! I have commented before that you know your stash very well. My sister-in-law is dealing with her own fabric stash, her deceased sister's stash and her friend Sheri's stash. She makes beautiful quilts--although I don't think she has ever used thrifted shirts. Enjoy your busy time and your family.

So glad to see and hear you today! You were with me this week when I spied a new thrift store. I FOUND A BEAUTIFUL WHITE TEXTURED 100 % COTTON SHIRT, great condition in a size.. wait for it… 6XL!!!!! Mother load!!! I was reminded when you said you got tickled about something. We have a friend from Louisiana, who was on a mission trip to Africa. He told them he was “tickled to death to be there”. He didn’t get the response he expected. Come to find out. When it was translated it came out, “scratched till I die” 😂😂😂😂 Praying for a peaceful productive week. See you next Friday.

Speaking of stash... you’ve probably heard of Sew Yeah Fabrics KZfaq fabric sales, Saturday nights at 5pm Pacific. In case, you haven’t...now you know. 😀 The Sew Yeah brothers are very entertaining. Hope to see your name in the live comments. It’s a great community.

Now I want to go to that thrift store. Thank you 😂😂😂

You have inspired me! I bought five 2X men shirts from my local goodwill. What is the normal size blankets you make. Thank you for sharing and inspiring! Be blessed

I have also been attracted to print shirts, but also really don’t see many solids at my thrift store…when they are there, they tend to be cotton/poly. So one of the big box stores near me has fabric 40% off every few weeks and that is where I get solids…they have a cheap tier and higher tier and I buy the higher tier on 40% off week, because the cheaper tier really is not very good quality.

I had to stop the video part way through and google to see if we have a Goodwill OUTLET. WE DO! I’m so excited because regular price at my Goodwill is kinda spendy. I had to laugh because most of my shirt stash is blue variations. Lots of men’s shirts are blue. Planning a checkerboard quilt with blue, yellow and white.

Hi Cathy! My oldest daughter and I often ask each other for a certain color of fabric for quilts we are making. Your stash is looking great! You're going to need a bigger sewing space! 😁❤

Well just look all that potential! How wonderful ♥ it's like opening a box of pencils! Loved the photo of you both as young sweethearts ♥ Now that we've seen the fabric storage, where do all the buttons go, Cathy? I know you snip them off, but do you keep them or only so many? I love buttons and have quite a few jars, including a large apothecary jar (which I think youd rather like) full to the brim with vintage buttons. I occasionally tip it out when I'm hunting for something different and it’s fun to sift through them. So I'm curious what you do with them.... Good to see you xxx P. S. red suits you!

I watched your video on your totes and loved the idea.❤ I now store my stash in totes. Thank you so much for that video. On another note, I know you work full-time, so my question is how much time do you spend on a daily basis on your quilts? Thank you for all your videos and for bringing so much Sunshine in to our lives.

I donated "all" of my solids to charity - I bought "enough" because all of the cool kids were using them... I just need the pattern. Horror Vacui is the concept that I follow. (Which is to say knowing what you like/want to do helps with building a stash too.) I try to buy solids or close to solids when I need them & know how I will use them.

Do you ever look at random men’s shirts on men and think how much you would like their shirts? I see shirts, not the men! This happens to me more when I’m watching tv.

Hi Cathy, do you use mainly use linen shirts in your quilts and just add quilting fabric when you can't find a certain colour that you need also does the linen fray easily once the shirts are deconstructed

Thanks for your inspiring tote organization! You may find it humorous to know I initially thrift-shopped men’s cotton (always blue…stripes, checks, etc.) to use as my nightshirts 😊. Now it’s always a toss up…nightshirt or quilt fabric?

Love this stash building video! Just wondering, since shirts have been washed, do you prewash your quilt store fabric before combining it with shirt fabric? su

Every time I watch your channel i end up going on a shopping spree 🥴

Did you do a video on your Irish Chain? I would love to see it :)

I’m so frustrated! I love this way of finding fabric, but found our goodwill shirt prices to be mostly $10 and $20. Also, dress shirts seem to be in short supply in my Oregon town. I will keep trying though my stash may stay small.

Hello! I saw lots of BIG beautiful men’s dress shirts at my local thrift store today. Most of the pretty ones were poly cotton blend. Would they work for piecing quilts or just 100% cotton? Thanks for your videos and advice!

Hi! When do you consider a piece of fabric a "scrap" and what do you do with those? Just deconstructing a shirt creates lots of smaller pieces.

Are the shirts you choose for your quilts all cotton, or something else?

Perhaps you have already answered this question somewhere and I have missed it. Do you pre wash you new quilt store fabric since most of the material you work with has been washed ple ty of times.

Oohh, I'll have to resort mine into groupings. Got so much in my head ATM that I am having a sewing block. Maybe those UFOs need addressing?

You're so organized! I'm not...😢

OK is anyone else eyeing men's shirts that are being worn by people around you? 😂

I now have an addiction of looking for linen shirts at the thrift store. Have no idea what I’m going to make out of them, but I’ll figure it out since I have literally 100 or more inspo quilt pictures screenshoted! 🫣 Thanks for sharing with us what inspires you!