My DIL asked me to do a quilt for her using the clothes from the grandbaby. He's 18 mos. old now and the clothes are from his 1st year. She handed me a huge bag of clothes and wants blocks with the logos and embroidery on them. I'm at a loss as to how to even start this. She has a lot of confidence in me, but I have none. Could someone please help me? Thnks.

Not knowing what kind of fabric these clothes are made from, I'm sure some of them are kinda stretchy. I would just start by cutting them into squares with the logos and embroidery in the center. The stretchy ones I would maybe iron a lightweight stabilizer on the back. Then just start sewing blocks together. Maybe throw in a few pieced blocks.

Hopefully others will chime in and give you some better ideas. :D :D :D

i'd start by handing the bag right back to her so SHE can cut them up into squares. :lol:

That sounds like an excellent idea!
That way, she will have the ones she wants included the most, and cut down on your frustration. She is being too vague and expecting a miracle. Probably bc she doesn't understand the process, but this will be a good starting point to learn from. :D
P.S. be sure if she cuts them, that she adds a seam allowance.

LMAO!! :lol: :lol: :lol: I like your idea better Patrice. :D :D :D

I just got done putting together a quilt top of tee shirts.cutting out the "picture" from the shirt,(I just took a class) and ironed a lightwieght stabilizer to the back of each one,I framed each "shirt" with fabric,then put them together.I ended up with large blocks 12" each I think.but it came out really nice,just have to do sew the last row to the rest and the top is done.the most important thing is to try to make the squares all the same size if at all possible

Maybe if you posted a picture it would help give purrfectbarb an idea. Yours sounds great azdesertrat.

I AGREE !!!!!!

Yep...I agree with Patrice.
You could also have her sit with you and SHOW you what she wants done. That way, if you make something and it's not what she is wanting, then you can tell her that you did what she wanted.
It's hard on us to make something when someone is as vague as your DD is being.

My thought, also. She obviously has no kind of clue of what's involved.

:?

What brand/type of stabilizer do you use? I made a t-shirt quilt and hated it since everything stretched out so much and was a pain. Obviously someone thought of a way to fix that, and I've had people ask about me making them t-shirt quilts, so the stabilizer would really really help.

Thanks

I am working on a memory quilt and of course there were T-shirts! I used Pellon Iron on interfacing . They show on the plastic liner that it s to be used for interfacing in blouses etc. I used it on the t-shirts and it is less floppy but still soft. I liked the effect.

On the knit pieces, use a stabilizer meant for knits. After many failures with the Pellon-types, the best ones I found for general sewing with knits are Fusi-knit and French Fuse, which are both virtually the same-- a fusible tricot knit. Read the directions carefully so that you fully fuse the interfacing without scorching. It is usually available at my local Hancock's, but can also be found online. This product is very lightweight, but it does a great job of stabilizing without stiffness or bubbling.

I've been tossing around ideas for my mother's memory quilt. She's been gone almost 2 years already and I still haven't thought of a good pattern yet. Earlier, someone had the suggestion to mix the shirt pieces with pieced blocks. I think that would be cute. Someone else said to frame them in fabric and that would be good too...have to make sure it's not too busy.

I would sit down with her and explain the process of piecing. Perhaps this is something you could talk about and cut the pieces together. She would be educated on the amount of time, patience, and thought go into just the idea of a quilt, before anything is cut and pieced. Perhaps with the two of you sitting down and working on it together, it has the potential to catch that contagious quilting bug, and two work on a first project with just the two of you.

I see the potential for a wonderful combination of what you both could do together.

Thank you all for ur wonderful suggestions! My DIL told me today that she would like a twin size quilt. The problem is she lives in PA and I live in FL. We were visiting when she made the request, so I brought the bag home with me. I even had a nightmare about it last night. Oh well, I'll figure out something. Thanks also for the fusible suggestions. Most of the clothes are the little onesies in stretchy fabric. The grandbaby has more clothes than me! I actually was thinking of using the Crazy Eights pattern and then I could use logos and fabric. Not sure yet. Or a block with different fabrics in a frame around it.

For me, a LOT of my response and interest in the project would depend on how I was asked.

Someone just tossing a huge bag of clothes at me would not be a good way to get things started.

If you're going to do the quilt for your DIL (and she's so far away from you), why not go for the Crazy 8 pattern. It's fun and she probably doesn't have any idea what is necessary--she just knows that you quilt :).
Be as creative as you want and I'm sure they will be grateful. Obviously she already has faith in you :lol:
Definitely stabilize though, or life will be horrible for you with all the stretching.
If you want/need to bounce off ideas--do it on this QB there is so much expertise out here :) :) I love the inspiration I get from here.

Could someone send me a link to what a Crazy 8 pattern is? I google-image-d it online and there didn't seem to be a unifying pattern, or I'm missing it.

I would suggest something simple for this quilt. Save the complicated patterns for when you have quilting fabric :)

Try this web site: http://store.besewhappy.com/servlet/...Pattern/Detail

Gotcha, thanks!

Ok, ordered the Crazy Eights pattern....wish me luck...I'll try to post a picture when and if it ever gets done.. :roll:

I actually bought a bolt of lightwieght fusible stabilizer at Joanns,cuz she suggested 7 yards to make the quilt.I do believe it was Pellon,plus I had 40% off coupon .What we did in class is to put the shirt on the "sticky" side and the placed a very wet cloth on top of the logo and "pressed" not iron until the wet cloth was completely dry.what I used for my wet cloth was the back part of one of the t shirts.it worked really well,but is very time consuming.I had already cut out my logos to the size that I wanted,but you actually are not suppose to cut until the stabilizer on fused to the shirt because of the stretching,I was very lucky

So here is the picture of the t shirt quilt,it is shirts from the Gaslight theatre here in town they do live plays every night and weekends,they are aesome and funny,if you ever come to tucson plan ahead and get tickets you won't be disappointed i guarantee it

My daughter has me make quilts out of her kids receiving blankets after they are too old to need them. Maybe you could suggest this to her?

i am also curious about the Crazy 8 and the lonk isn't working :?

Ok found a working link, sorry

http://www.createforless.com/Bits+n+...utm_medium=cse

Glad you brought this subject as I picked up several good ideas.

About a year and a half ago one of my niece in laws told me she'd like to make a quilt from her daugther's first year clothes, daughter was about 6 months old at the time. Asked niece if she knew how to sew or had a sewing machine, said her mother had a machine. Little girl - such a cutie, is over 2 now but no mention of the quilt from niece. From now til the end of the year is a busy time for me but think I'll bring it up when I see the family around Christmas time. Little problem is that neice lives in Brooklyn, NY and I live in Jersey, and neice works full time. If she's really interested in making a quilt we'll find someway to make time for some sewing and quilting instructios and, more importanly, what parts of the clothes she wants to use and what she invisions the quilt to look like. May in Jersey

This is beautiful!

Stabalize each part of the garment before cutting as if you were doing a T shirt quilt. Use cotton for borders around each piece in a size that is needed to make rows. Good luck

I have made several t-shirt quilts, especially for high school grads. Using a fusible interfacing is key--but watch out when applying an iron around silk screened logos--they can melt. I have done plain squares, and fancier pieced blocks which used the t-shirt piece as the center (log cabin variations, square-in-a-square etc). It's also fun to select fabrics for your borders and sashings which have some significance to the person receiving the quilt....like sports or music themes or in your case baby items. Hint for shirts which have the logos printed too high on the chest to make it the center of a square, piece on part of the lower shirt above the logo, then cut to your selected size (kind of like splicing in a short piece of wallpaper). Once it's quilted you'll never see the seam. Above all, have fun, and enjoy making the memories of your grandchild!

I hope this helps...

http://www.craftastical.com/2009/08/...rom-start.html

I've been saving clothes for my 4 girls for a long time and keeping my eye out for direction for what I want to do. This is the best tutorial I've seen on the topic. She uses flannel to stablize. I'll still use lightweight fusible interfacing. But the rest, I'll do very similar to what she's done.

Lori

My mom passed away this summer and I kept all her soft shirts. I am thinking I would like to make quillows out of them as I have enough to make each of her grandchildren one. I would like to use fleece but haven't figured out how I am going to make them. Has anyone evermade quillows out of clothing?
I would love to see what you do with the baby clothes. It might give me some inspiration.

I had a nightmare experience allowing the person to cut the items. They did not sew and had no clue that there needed to be a seam allowance to work with. Please let the DIL let you prepare these like others suggested to stabilize and then make into blocks with sashing and borders. I made two out of t-shirts and it took a miracle because they were just ripped or cut any old kind of way. In the end, it turned out fine, after I squared them up or made rectangles out of them.

Here is a sample of art work that was done by pre-schoolers that I had to sqaure, sash and then sew together into a quilt.

Several years ago, I made a quilt just like you're describing from the clothes of a baby....probably the first two years of clothes , for a mother who had lost this child in a tragic accident. I used fusible tricot to iron to the back of the area I wanted to use for my 6 or 8 in block. (I can't remember the exact size, but you can tell by the size of the clothes what it needs to be. ) That helps prevent the stretching and gives it some body to sew with and to cut with. There's some waste of tricot by ironing on before cutting out the block, but it was well worth it since nearly all of these clothes were cotton knit. Of course, I cut the clothes apart at the shoulders and side seams before ever beginning. All the clothes had some cute little flowers or embroidered designs, etc which I used for the centers of the blocks. Then, I framed with different fabrics for the stripping/sashing. It made a darling quilt, and the mother was so grateful to have this "memory" of her precious child to keep forever. And, you definitely could use the extra "help" with all this cutting and preparing. Will make her appreciate it soooooo much more!!!

For your grandbaby, this is a wonderful way to use your quilting ideas and make it original for him/her, especially using his/her clothes! I did three quilts using clothes from a young mother who died from cancer - three small quilts for her daughters and it was much fun! Do appliques from "characters" on the clothing - used animals, flowers, etc. Our imagination can take us anywhere and the end result shows the love and care put into the quilt! Take your time and enjoy!!!!

Nana Carol

I'm definitely taking my time...I love everybody's suggestions and will be using a lot of them. So far I have the fusible material for the backing and I'm going to use the Cracy Eights pattern, which I received yesterday. I still haven't taken the clothes apart. That first cut will be the hardest. The clothes are so cute, I wish I couuld pass them on to my niece who is having a baby in December. Anyway, I'm not the best quilter in the world and this one will be a challenge for me.

I made a T-shirt quilt for my son...and I used blocks from 4"x4" up to 16"x16".....and all in between....

(like 4x8, 8x8,12x12, and 4x8, 8x4 etc......)

it was very interesting but you would definitely have to have a smaller scale for the baby clothes....

get a math student to help calculate !!!!!!!

It was challenging but fun........but definitely will be my first and last......

good luck......
MJ in NJ