T-shirt and Jeans Picnic Blanket

The weather has finally warmed up here and it feels like spring.  Some days it even feels like summer.  We are spending more time outside, so it was a perfect time to finish this t-shirt and jeans picnic blanket. 

I actually started this project over a year ago.  After my last t-shirt quilt I still had a lot of t-shirts left to upcycle.  Mostly ones the kids grew out of, but some of my old ones too.  This time, however, I decided to combine them with denim.  I didn't have as many jeans to upcycle as I had t-shirts, so I ended up supplementing with some unused denim from my stash and a couple of XL men's jeans from Goodwill.

My construction method was inspired by this quilt in denim and flannel.  Each rectangle in the quilt is simply a t-shirt piece on top of a denim piece, wrong sides together.  To sew the squares together I put the denim sides of two squares together and sewed through all four pieces.  Then on the t-shirt side, I opened up the seam and sewed the denim down.

I began by cutting the shirt fronts into squares and rectangles of whatever size worked best for the particular shirt that I was cutting. I cut denim rectangles to match each t-shirt rectangle.  Once I had a lot of rectangles cut, I began to group them by width and sew them into strips 24" long.  I had to trim some rectangles down to get the width I needed and had to fill in with rectangles of the specific size needed to fill out a strip.  Once I had enough 24" strips I laid them out in three rows and sewed them together.

At this point I realized my blanket wasn't wide enough, but I had run out of t-shirts and motivation, so the project stalled for a while.  I finally got back to it just a few weeks ago, adding a 12" wide strip down the right side to make the blanket feel proportional.  To finish it off I cut up one leg of a pair of jeans into 1 1/8" wide strips to make binding for the quilt. I simply folded the binding around the edge and sewed it on with a zig zag stitch.

And this is the finished blanket. 

I love projects like this that both avoid waste and preserve memories.  There are several shirts in here that I made for the kids, so I especially like being able to keep them and continue to get use out of them.  In the picture above you can see a piece of the sunglasses tee from this post and the shark tee from this post.

I also love the back of this blanket.  The various shades of denim, many of which have variations within the piece due to fading, and the few pops of red are really fun and give the back a lot of character.

The frayed edges of the denim give the blanket a casual feel that is perfect for a blanket that we'll be laying out on the ground. Hopefully this is a blanket we'll get a lot of use out of. 

Fall Jackets

It is fall in my part of the world and the weather has turned cooler.  The change of seasons always seems to bring a lot of chores - putting the summer clothes away, bringing the cool weather clothes down - and while I'm up in the attic I notice that there is a lot of stuff that we probably don't need anymore, and when was the last time I cleaned up here?  Which is all to say that I actually haven't been spending much time sewing lately.  I sewed these jackets a month or two ago and just haven't had decent pictures to share until now.

I enjoy sewing jackets for the kids because they get a lot of use - the kids have been wearing these jackets multiple times a week.  I also like all the little finishing touches, like pocket welts and top-stitching seams that makes them look polished.

I sewed the little guy a red and black jacket that we have been calling the "Deadpool Jacket."  I used the Jalie 2795 hoodie pattern. The front, back and sleeves of the pattern are each made up of multiple panels, which makes it a great pattern for color blocking. 

I used black and red sweatshirt fleece for the body of the jacket.  The zipper is grey because that's what I had on hand. The cuffs and pocket welts are black ribbing.  The jacket is not lined, but the seams are all serged and then top-stitched, which gives the jacket a polished look even without a lining.

The big kid requested a shiny silver jacket.  I used a metallic silver spandex that I have used before - although never on this scale.  I lined it with a grey heather jersey that was once a jersey sheet.  If it had been up to me, I would have lined it with something that would have contrasted with the silver, but the big kid was making the fabric choices, so that's grey it is.

The pattern is from Kwik-Sew's Sewing for Children, which has patterns for all kinds of staple clothing items, with lots of instructions for making variations of the basic patterns.  The sizing is a little out-dated (shirts are really wide, pants taper)  but once you know that you can adjust the fit -- the book even includes directions for adjusting length and width.

The jackets have already been getting a lot of use, and, absent a giant growth spurt, should serve the kids well in the spring too.

Bottoms Up(cycle) Quilt

I have been on a bit of an upcycling kick lately.  I'd really prefer not to throw anything away if it still can be used in some way.  That is especially true of clothes.   I will donate clothes that are in good condition, but some of the kids' clothes are too worn by the time they are done with them to give away, and, of course, some clothes have sentimental value.  I'd also rather keep the things that I made for the kids and make something else with them than donate them.   So, I stash them in a drawer or a bin in my sewing room until I can think of something to do with them.

Last year I made this quilt and used up a good portion of my stash of kids' t-shirts.  I still had a lot of pants that I didn't know what to do with though. Then when we were visiting my parents in California this past winter I took this picture of the kids:

I put it on the lock screen on my phone and, after looking at it daily for a couple months, I got the idea to make a quilt using the colors in the photo.  I started looking at my fabric stash to see what I had that would work, but then I realized that the kids' old pants actually had most of the colors in the photo: Sand, blue, green, grey, brown.  So I decided this quilt would be a perfect upcycling project for all those old kids' pants that I didn't know what to do with.

 Because some of the pants I wanted to upcycle were toddler sized, I knew I wouldn't be able to get very large cuts out of them.  I decided to cut pieces 3.5" x 6.5" and pair them together to make 6" finished blocks. I threw in some bottom-weight fabric scraps I had lying around as well to fill out some of the colors.

Once I cut up all the pants I sewed them together in pairs that I felt went together - for example, sand would be next to water or plants, so I would sew the sand colors to either blue or green and I sewed darker blues to lighter blues.  Once I had all my blocks sewn I played around with the arrangement a bit.  At first I thought I wanted a more literal representation of the coastline, but I wasn't happy with how it looked:

So I eventually settled on a more random arrangement:

I used Kaufman Shetland Flannel in Solid Denim for the back and quilted it in a stair step pattern following the lines of the blocks. 

I bound the edges with an army green twill that I think I got from the remnant bin at Jo-Ann's. 

The quilt is 10 squares on a side, so it finishes at 60" square.  I love all the different textures that the pants add and the soft flannel on the back. I'm sure I will enjoy snuggling under it when the weather gets cool again.  For now, though, I just like to run my hand over it and see the all fabrics memories.

Avengers Pajamas

My little guy is very much into Marvel super heroes lately. He has a gazillion Marvel action figures and Legos; he has started playing the Lego Marvel Superheroes video game with his brother; and at bedtime he almost always chooses a book featuring Iron Man, Spiderman or the Avengers. 

When he went to they fabric store with me a few weeks back he picked out this Avengers fabric, so I decided to make him some pajamas with it.  I used a vintage sewing pattern for the pajama pants.  The pattern has only one piece for each leg which worked well for this fabric since it is a pretty large scale pattern; it allows the images to be unbroken by a side seam.  I modified the pattern slightly by making the legs straight instead of tapered.

 

For the t-shirt I used the raw-edged raglan pattern from Sewing for Boys (affiliate link).  This is my go-to t-shirt pattern for the kids, although I rarely do the raw-edged thing.  It is super quick to sew up on my serger and, for pajamas, I can just leave the sleeves and bottom un-hemmed.  In this case, I was up-cycling an old shirt of mine for the sleeve fabric, so I re-used the hems.

I appliqued a few leftover panels from the Avengers fabric on to the front of the shirt with a zig-zag stitch and - as my little guy would say - "Wall-la!" a comfy matching set of PJs.

And now, I think someone wants to read a story.

Iron Man Raglan T-Shirt

The kids had a day off of school on Friday so I took the day off as well. What the big kid wanted to do most on his day off was to sew a new soft toy. He and I have been sewing up quite a few soft toys lately, which I will have to share in another post. But the little guy often gets left out of these projects. He rarely asks me to sew him anything until after he sees something I have sewn his brother, and then he just wants his own copy. Usually at that point I don't have the time or energy to make another. Last week, however, I took him to the fabric store with me and we talked about what he would like me to sew for him. He told me he wanted an Iron Man Mark 2 shirt. So on Friday I made that my first priority. I have a metallic silver spandex knit fabric left over from another project which I decided to use for the Iron Man figure. I then found an Iron Man coloring page that I could use for the shape. I printed out the coloring page and traced the outline onto Wonder Under (affiliate link). I ironed the Wonder Under onto the back of the silver fabric and cut out the shape, then ironed it onto my t-shirt fabric.

I used the raglan tee pattern from Sewing for Boys (affiliate link) and upcycled a 3X men's tee that I got at a bargain store for the main fabric, reusing the hem. The sleeve fabric is from an upcycled jersey sheet - also re-using the hem. Yay for not having to hem! I then printed my coloring page onto freezer paper and ironed it onto the top of my silver fabric applique. I machine stitched along some of the interior lines of the figure using black thread and a short stitch length to make ripping the paper out easier at the end. After I ripped the paper out I sewed around the whole figure to define it and added a white felt circle for the chest unibeam.

After all that detail work, sewing the shirt together was a breeze. My little guy immediately put the shirt on and started showing off his Iron Man moves.

Winding Twine

When my intangible work takes up most of my time, I really find myself craving the tangible.  So, this past year, when I didn't have much time to sew, I found a project that I could do a little bit at a time - while watching the kids or watching TV.  I had a couple of sheets that were the big kid's that had seen better days.  They were ripped and faded but I didn't want to throw them away.  In the condition they were in they were not suitable for giving away, nor were they suitable for making into clothes or quilts.  So, I decided to make twine.

Winding the twine is kind of meditative and satisfies my need to be doing something productive even if I don't have time to sit in front of the sewing machine.  And it is easy to do a little at a time.  I don't quite know what I will do with the twine when I finish - perhaps crochet it up into a basket, like this one?



This website had my favorite tutorial for making fabric twine, in case you want to make some too.

Kimono Slippers

 

Last week was Selfish Sewing Week and, while I didn't have much time to sew, I did manage to make myself a pair of slippers to keep my feet warm now that it is getting colder.

I followed the free pattern by Lauren E Fabrications, using a canvas fabric for the outer fabric, a fleece for the inner fabric, and a non-slip fabric for the sole.

 
Although the pattern was made for a size 9-9 1/2 and I wear a size 8-8 1/2, I was too lazy to modify it, so, after I was done, I just added a couple of pleats on the sides of each shoe near the heel to keep the slipper from falling off of my heel.

And now my feet are warm, cozy and comfortable!

Lightning McQueen Letterman Jacket

I sewed my little guy a letterman jacket for fall using the pattern by Fairytale Pattern Designs (affiliate link).

The body is red and black sweatshirt fleece, with red ribbing for the cuffs, collar and bottom band.

The pattern doesn't call for a lining, but I wanted this jacket to be warm enough for fall, so I added a lining made out of gray jersey.

I appliqued Lightning McQueen's number on the back and a Lightning McQueen patch that I bought on Etsy on the front.

Unfortunately I did not notice the typo in the patch until after the jacket was complete.  Did you catch it?  I should fix it before the little guy learns how to read.

But, for now, he thinks his new jacket is perfect.

Toddler Play Purse

For my niece's 2nd birthday I decided to make her a play purse and phone with several different fasteners so she could practice her fine motor skills.  I was inspired by this one that I saw on Pinterest, but I decided to make mine with pockets and use what I had, which meant no buckles.

The front features one snap pocket and one button pocket as well as a velcro tab to close the top of the purse.

The back features a zipper pocket.

I made a toy iPhone to go with the purse.  It has clear vinyl on the front to mimic a screen and a single button.  I imagined the dots in the center of the screen would represent the icons on the screen.  Apparently it is all a little too abstract for my niece, though; my brother tells me she keeps trying to find a way to open it.

The interior has a pocket to hold the phone.

I hear that my niece has been carrying it around with her everywhere, so I guess it was a success!

T-Shirt Quilt

I have been working on this t-shirt quilt for almost a year now, although I've probably been thinking about it at least twice that long.  I have been saving t-shirts for this project since the little guy started growing out of shirts -- about three years ago. I don't like to throw anything out that can be re-used in some way; in addition, t-shirts that the kids have worn are special because they have memories attached.  Many of the shirts in this quilt were worn by both boys.  Some were handmade by me and a couple were decorated by a cousin.

About a year ago I started cutting up these saved shirts and piecing them in to 12.5" blocks.  I didn't use any kind of interfacing, although I know you are supposed to to keep the shirts from stretching as your are piecing and cutting.  I wasn't really worried about wonkiness though.  Since many of the baby and toddler shirt fronts were less than 12.5" square I sewed pieces to the sides and/or top and bottom to get them to 12.5."  Up until a couple months ago I only had about a dozen of these blocks done since I haven't had much time for sewing since September.  But in the last couple months I have had more sewing time and have been working on this quilt whenever I get a chance.

I sewed the quilt together using a quilt-as-you-go method because I was worried that the lack of interfacing would make the whole thing too unstable if I tried to sew the blocks up into one big quilt top.  So, once I had my quilt blocks (I made 36), I layered each with a piece of fleece for the batting and a heather gray jersey knit (from a set of sheets) for the backing and trimmed them up together using a 12.5" ruler (affiliate link).  I found that when I smoothed the quilt block over the fleece that it needed trimming again to get it to 12.5" (that is obviously due to the lack of interfacing).  The t-shirt material tended to stick to the fleece a little bit which made the whole thing hold together pretty well, but I put four safety pins through all the layers in each block to make sure the sandwich stayed together and didn't shift too much.

Once I had all my block sandwiches trimmed up I made binding tape out of solid flannel using my Clover 1-inch bias tape maker (affiliate link).  I used flannel because I wanted it to feel soft and warm, like the t-shirts, but not have the stretch.  I thought the feel of quilting cotton would be too much of a contrast with the t-shirts.

I then aligned the raw edge of one strip of binding tape to the right edge of one of my blocks, with the right side of the binding tape to the front of the block.  I used another strip of binding tape on the back of the block with the right side of that strip facing the back of the block.  I held the whole thing together with Wonder clips (affiliate link).

I then sewed the binding tape on right along the crease (1/2" from the edge).  I used long strips of the binding tape so that, as I got to the end of one block, I just slid another block in between the two strips of binding tape, making sure all the edges were aligned, and kept sewing.

After I finished sewing the binding tape to the right side of each block I cut the blocks apart and folded the binding tape from the back of the block out, so that the right side of that binding tape was now face down.  I then put that on top of the next block which was face down, so that the right side of the back binding was against the back of the next block. I sewed along the back binding along the crease.

Then I flipped the second block so that it was face up and folded the front binding tape over the second block's left side raw edges.

I topstitched along the right side of the front binding tape, making sure the stitching from the back binding was covered.  I used a bobbin thread that matched my backing fabric rather than my binding fabric because more often than not that stitching ended up on the backing fabric.

I continued piecing my blocks together this way until I had seven rows of blocks each.

I then pieced the rows together the same way I pieced the blocks together, making sure that my binding strips were at least as long as the row.  At this point I realized I didn't have enough of the blue to complete the whole quilt, so I cut up some red and green to alternate with the blue for sewing the rows together.  I actually love the way this turned out.

To complete the quilt I used a strip of binding tape made from navy blue flannel to bind the edges.  I sewed it to the back first and then folded it over to the front and machine stitched it down.

And then I was done!  A cozy soft quilt full of memories. The big kid has already claimed it as his own.

The quilt finished up at about 62.5" by 87.5." With this method of quilting as you go, you don't lose anything in the seam allowances since the blocks butt up against eachother under the binding strip. It is a generous twin size quilt and should last us a while. Maybe one of the kids will even take it to college!

I have a lot of t-shirts left and have plans for more quilts to use them up. I think my next project will be a denim-backed t-shirt picnic blanket!