Repurpose men's shirts into a quilt

I supported our local op shop (charity shop) by buying some men's shirts.
"Lovely shirts." said the lady.
"Yes," I replied, "But I'm only going to cut them up!"
My man has to be attending a wedding or funeral to wear a proper shirt so there is nothing for it, but to cut them up and add them to my fabric stash.

They have to be 100% cotton with no nasty armpits and not too much wear.  Stripes are great, but a small check works well too.  Wash them well in hot water, then press them and cut out the collars and cuffs and any seams.  I add the buttons to my button jar.  Then I just use the fabric as I would any other. For $4 a shirt I get heaps more fabric than a fat quarter which typically sells for around $7 in New Zealand.

Shirt fabrics are great to increase your stash of 'man' fabrics.  You know, the fabrics that aren't too girly or floral and work well in quilts you're making for men.  There is at least four shirt fabrics used in this log cabin quilt.

And you can get both light and dark shirts, which help when you're making a quilt that needs light and dark fabrics.  I think I nailed the tonal contrast in this one!

This quilt is going to get bigger soon.  I have more blocks than this and my sister has been working on doing some too.  With any luck she'll post them to me shortly and I can work on getting the top together.  (Are you listening Sis?)

Affordable Quilting

Tanya from Suburban Jubilee left me a comment on my last post asking me a question:

"I wish I had a sister. How cool is that to be able to share a project and then have this wonderful family heirloom. I love pouring over your quilt photos. I can't quite dip my toe in the water here and I need some advice....

I look longingly at fabrics but the price is quite significant. I think maybe I should buy a fat quarter every so often...but then I worry that many of the quilts I see in the shop are all so co-ordinated with "ranges" and aren't really piecemeal at all. So am I better to buy all the fabric I need in one season because the dyelots are all in similar palettes? Do you buy all your quilt fabric in one go?"

I started emailing an answer to her but it got longer and longer so I've decided to post it here for others who are interested too.

Hi Tanya,

The price of fabric IS significant and I am constantly amazed at how much people seem to buy when I look around the net. However, the prices are a lot cheaper in America so that might bias my opinion.



Some of my stash - blue seems to be a favourite of mine.

Because I do a lot of quilting, I like to work from a 'stash' - a collection of lots of pieces of fabric that I gathered here and there. I work out what I want to make (I rarely follow a pattern completely) and then sift through my stash for pieces that will go together. This has it's downfalls - sometimes I want to use a certain fabric but don't have enough and I know I won't find it in the shops again, but this forces me to be creative. I also have to make sure that when I'm buying bits and pieces here and there that I gather a range of tones, pattern sizes and colours (or I'd just end up with stacks of mid-tone blues!).

I have quilting friends who work differently. They find what they want to make, work out how much of each colour/pattern they need and then go and buy it all at once. They spend a lump sum all at once and they don't tend to have many leftovers to use on little projects just as a whim. But they know they will have exactly what they need for that quilt and if they are making something that will last a few generations, then the lump sum is probably worth it.

Lots of quilts around are made up of one co-ordinated fabric range. They are promoted so that you buy that designers fabric, but you don't have to make your quilt like that, and in fact, I think it gives your quilt a more distinctive 'you' style if it's made from bits and pieces that you have collected. Dyelots do change from batch to batch, but you will always find fabric to co-ordinate - there are only so many colours on this earth!



A quilt I made with lots of lil' bitty pieces of many different fabrics.

As for how to afford the fabric? I save up my dollars and browse shops when they are having sales and buy a few bits and pieces that are a good price. I always check the 'specials' bin and I visit op shops and cut up cotton shirts, skirts and sheets that I've bought for a dollar or two. Specialist quilting shops have beautiful fabrics and lovely quality, but their prices reflect that. But a small amount of stunning fabric can be used as a feature, and the background fabrics can come from a cheaper place such as Spotlight.

If you are planning to do a lot of applique with little pieces, then fat quarters and fat eighths might be the way to go. If you think carefully before you buy what you might use that fabric for, you might realise that it would be better to buy a metre's worth of fat eighths and get a really good range of colour than to buy a whole metre of one fabric that you will only use a small amount of. But fabrics that you are likely to use as backgrounds or the backing of quilts - buy several metres when it's on special.

Check out the shops 'extra wide' backing fabrics. These are ones made extra width to be put on the back of quilts without having to join lengths. If you work out price per metre, you can frequently be onto a bargain and they are often perfect for backgrounds or borders (and backings of course!).

Cheap and cheerful - a quilt I made in 2005 entirely from Homespuns (cheap plain colour calicos)

I have spent a bit of time on the net and worked out which internet shops have good prices and subscribe to their newsletters to hear about sales. I also get my plain black and white fabrics and my battings from my local guild who can buy them wholesale. Sometimes buying from overseas can work out cheaper than local even when you factor in postage, especially when you split the postage with a friend. Check out http://greenfairyquilts.com/ and use an online currency converter to get an idea.

One day I want to make this hobby of mine a career.  I'm not sure in what way yet, whether in designing patterns, quilting other people's quilts, working in a quilting store or (in my wildest dreams!) designing fabric.  So I use these plans to justify purchases as well, as 'research' and 'learning and development'.  (By the way - anyone out there want to hire me?!)

There is a quilting saying,"She who dies with the most fabric, wins!" I guess like any true addict, I have found many ways and means of sustaining my habit. And I figure that the money I save on not styling or cutting my hair, not buying designer clothes and only buying new shoes when I NEED them, lets me have a little leeway.

(Yes, I am a frumpy, out-of-fasion woman with straggly hair and worn out shoes - but I have a fantastic fabric stash!)

Free is Good.

So I mentioned that things had happened while I was away, and that I'd tell you about them over a few posts.  One of them was more bunnies being born, check.  Another was my flax seeds that I'd given up on ever germinating. 

I sowed these when I picked them from their pods several months ago.  I dutifully watered them through the drought and then when nothing happened I started ignoring them.

My native plant propagation bible "The Propagation of New Zealand Native Plants" by Lawrie Metcalf, says that you should sow Phormium seed when fresh and germination usually occurs within about 4 weeks.  Hmmm.  Maybe it was the drought.  But anyhoo, now that the temperature has dropped, they've all popped their heads up.  Yay.  I love flax - it attracts the tui, grows well in damp ground and is hardy as all heck.

A mature flax (although they get a lot bigger) with immature flower stalks.

I also have more free trees.  These are transplanted Tagasaste (Tree Lucerne).  I found a little cluster growing (from seed from our shelter belt) in the bare clay where our shed extension is going to go.  I dug them up, separated them and potted them up.  And they all seem to have survived.  These trees prefer well drained soil and so don't do as well in Northland as they do in somewhere like Canterbury where I've seen them growing great guns.  But if you pick your spot right they do pretty well.  They are short lived (8-15 years), attract native birds, nitrogen fixers, flowering now (great for winter bee food), good stock fodder, good firewood and only grow to about 6 metres - very manageable.

Loquats (yummmmmmmy) and Manuka.  Loquats grown from seeds and the Manuka (bee food, firewood, fast shelter) potted up from seedlings growing in my Mother-in-Law's pot plant. (Yes, those are strawberry flowers in the background - not holding out much hope for berries in winter though).

Propagating isn't as hard as I thought - if you start with the easy ones anyway.  Give it a go and if you end up with more than you need, then give them away as gifts, donate them to a school, plant them on a boring roadside.....you'll think of something!

Batting the old-fashioned way.

I thought I'd write a bit about using woollen blankets as batting for my quilts.  I've had a few comments on it and a couple of questions so I guess there is interest, right?

I love old woollen blankets for so many reasons.  Natural fibres have something going for them, very warm, breathable, they break down easily - the worms in your worm farm will love your wool scraps!  Then there is the history aspect (I mean who hasn't heard a New Zealand orientated sheep joke, right?).  The label on the top blanket is a very well-known historical brand name, lots of people grew up with Kaiapoi blankets on their beds. 

And of course; reduce, reuse, recycle.  To buy new batting isn't cheap, especially if you make big quilts.  I've picked up most of my blankets for between $5 and $12 NZ dollars.  And most of them are in great nick.  Even ones with a few thin spots and holes can be sliced up and used in bassinet quilts and cot quilts.

This is all that is left of this blanket.  It had some holes in it when I bought it, but it's given me a big patch for a friends woollen blanket quilt I repaired, batting for a cot sized quilt, a thin and holey section for the cat's basket ;) and I've still got enough to make a couple of bassinet quilts.

Second hand or preloved blankets have usually been washed so many times that all their shrinking and felting is done, but I recommend to quilt recipients that they gentle machine wash on cold, or hand wash - but I'd recommend that for any quilt anyway.

This is one of the first quilts I made using  a woollen blanket for batting.  These photos are to give you an idea of the loft of a blanket as batting.  (The black is the back).  You can see that there is scarcely any bearding, which can be an issue with polyesters and I think it gives a slightly flatter look, but still shows up the quilting just fine.  It's a queen size topper and, if I remember correctly, I had to join two blankets together. 

For joining, cut off any edge binding to reduce bulk, then layer your blankets so there is an overlap of an inch or two.  Large zigzag stitch down each overlapped edge and you're done.  This gives a flatter finish, much less noticeable than a traditional seam.

If you have a really nice blanket you can use that as a batting and backing - just don't cover it up with a backing fabric! 

So, go ahead and try it.  And then when you are finished - enjoy snuggling under your quilt knowing how much good you've done the world, and how much history you are snuggling under.

This is the first ever quilt I made with my  boy, now five years old, rolled up asleep in it.  It took me years to finish it, it's half hand-pieced as I didn't own a sewing machine when I began and it started me on my woollen blanket journey.  I batted it with one because I had nothing else!

You're soaking in it, luv.

My newest frugal tip. I can't claim this one, cheers dear sister-in-law.

I know I should probably wash the dishes by hand, and I WAS planning to when we moved into the shed. But some very kind people (gotta love the in-laws) gave us some money towards a dishwasher (she knows I hate washing dishes) so I just HAD to get one.

So to assuage my guilt at using lots of power and water every time I wash, I make sure to use eco-friendly powder. Plus it's also ok for when I use the grey water on my garden (which I do, a lot - there's a drought you know). This Eco-store brand has to be the best I've ever found - it even shines my copper bottom pots!

But, here's a trick to make it go further. Dilute it by half with baking soda (soda bicarbonate). Then mark the bottle so you don't dilute it again by accident! Still works just as good.

Now before you all send me recipes to make my own much cheaper, greener cleaners, I will attempt to make my own soap, clothes washing powder/liquid and my own dishwasher goop one day. But, just at the moment, I'm wrestling with cooking, baking, vege gardening, chickens, rabbits, crafting and quilting and children and that's enough for now. It's on the to-do list, but just a bit further down!

*And the title? It's a reference to an old tv ad for Palmolive dishwashing liquid, remember it fellow kiwis?!

Raisin Scrooge

My kids like raisins. But preferably the raisins in the little cardboard packages. I am a scrooge, sorry, frugal mum, and don't like spending the money on the little cardboard packages.

So now I fool my kiddies. I keep the little cardboard boxes, refill them with bulk bought sultanas (which are cheaper than raisins, and hey, they are all grapes, right?) when they aren't looking and hey presto, they are ready for the next round of snacks!

And the funny thing is, they eat them with exactly the same enthusiasm as they do the 'real' ones! What clever marketing person came up with the little cardboard box idea? And they don't even squeak when you blow in them anymore, like they used to when we were kids.