No Sheet! Really?

Sorry, couldn't contain the pun!

After reading my last post, Dreaming commented that she uses twin-size sheets to make duvet covers (brilliant!)

Allie shops in resale shops for vintage sheets and uses them as quilt backs.

As a military wife, I used sheets to make simple garment bags for my then-husband's uniforms and shoe bags for his dress shoes.

I have a friend who uses them to make ironing board covers. Because they were often worn out at this point, she would cut an oblong piece of Teflon fabric and use the sheets to border it/cinch over the board.

What other uses for sheets?

I'm interested in this topic of reusing/recycling because it's everywhere, and I'm making another memory quilt with every type of fabric thrown in.

Things I've learned (in addition to my t-shirt tips) when using clothes are:

• A good stabilizer makes almost any fabric usable.
• Careful of the stabilizer you select - sometimes it makes fabric flexible in one direction and unforgiving in others.
• Bonnie Hunter (who has fabulous books in this topic) was right... If you cut the pieces small enough, every fabric is beautiful!
  
• To take apart a shirt, cut out the neck, the sleeves, the waistband, and the side seams before stabilizing. I was told I hadn't clarified it in my last post.
• Save the sleeves - if you run out of fabric pieces when cutting up the main yardage, you can turn to the sleeves as an emergency stash. You can also save them for "emergency repairs" at a later date.
• I find stains are more noticable after stabilizing so give your fabric another check before cutting.
• My favorite patterns for memory quilts made from clothes are enlarged baby quilt patterns. They are simple enough that you don't have to worry about bulky seams (quilt I'm working on now includes blue jeans) and the pieces of the loved one's clothes are big enough to be recognizable.
• If the clothes (or sheets) have a lingering smell, I found these great skunk-away pouches (look like the powder bags for bowling) at BB&B. I tried enclosing them in a sealed garbage bag with fabric softeners but everything smelled flowery and musty.

What other tips do you have for re-using, repurposing and recycling? How do you use leftover clothes, sheets, towels?

 

I wanna know!

Elisa

 

 

Time to KISS and Tell!

I made this quilt for some friends and dropped it off tonight.  So.... I can finally share!  This is a memory quilt for a young man who passed away - he loved KISS!

This is what we started with

Here's the finished quilt.  He LOVED purple.

Used the images from the shirt pockets for the label.
His name is grayed out for privacy reasons.

It was great to hand it over to the Mother.  I know this quilt will be loved!  T-shirt quilts are SO soft!

Happy Stitching!
Elisa

Just Chugging Along on the T-shirt Quilt

Howdy!

I realize it’s been awhile.  I’ve been very busy machine quilting a t-shirt “memory” quilt.  OOOOOHHH!!  If you haven’t done one, you need to!  Too bad it’s going to a different home – it’s SO soft I would love to snuggle up in it on this rainy day!  I can’t share a picture of it since my friend hasn’t seen it yet, but I should have it finished by this weekend. 

At some point, I need to make a t-shirt quilt for myself.  It would be so eclectic!  I would have to include my:

·         “I’m the bad aunt” t-shirt

·         Borders Books/Woodward Dream Cruise shirts

·         Friends of the Belle Isle Aquarium

·         “Run Wild for the Detroit Zoo” t-shirt

·         And, finally, "Bring a GPS.....It's awkward when you have to eat your buddies" geocaching t-shirt

Can’t imagine what historians would make of all this!  What’s the funniest or weirdest t-shirt you have/have seen?

Happy Wednesday!
Elisa

Don’t forget my tips on t-shirt quilts found here.