Quilting using old clothes
#31
I've used old clothes. In fact I have a shirt that I am going to cut up now. You can go to the good will or anywhere and pick up clothes for quilts. Yard sales often have some cheap. I have also used old blankets for batting. They work well. You can pick them up cheap too. Necessity is the mother of invention. Get to cutting!
#35
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Small town in Northeast Oregon close to Washington and Idaho
Posts: 2,795
I had a hand died button down shirt I decided to cut up and use for quilting. By the time I cut off all the seams and edges, I had so little fabric left to work with. I wish I would have kept the shirt. It isn't enough to show up well in a quilt, even a baby quilt.
#37
We are incredibly lucky to have such a large selection of fabrics designed specifically for our hobby, but it was not always so. Quilting was born out of necessity, not luxury, and our grandmothers and great grandmothers "made do" with whatever they had easily to hand. I am very selective about purchasing new material and careful in choosing my fabric. I recover previously used material from clothing: any cotton fabric from shirts, dresses, etc. It is a bit time consuming, but in a funny kind of way, gives me a link with the past, when quilts were made using leftover fabric. Last Christmas, for example, I used recovered Jeans to make slipper boots for all the children and men in the family. I also used jeans fabric to make handbags for all the ladies.
My favourite quilt is one that I didn't make! It was made by my great grandmother, as a bedcover for my grandmother when she left home to get married. It used old dress fabrics and leftover pieces of material, because she didn't have the luxury of purchasing new fabric from her local quilting shop! All through my childhood I remember it being on my grandmothers bed. It is now on mine!
My favourite quilt is one that I didn't make! It was made by my great grandmother, as a bedcover for my grandmother when she left home to get married. It used old dress fabrics and leftover pieces of material, because she didn't have the luxury of purchasing new fabric from her local quilting shop! All through my childhood I remember it being on my grandmothers bed. It is now on mine!
#38
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Any place I can sew
Posts: 434
With the price of fabric and everything else rising it is getting harder and harder to afford fabric for quilts. Although there are lots of beautiful fabrics out there, I would rather put food on the table for my kids.
I am wondering if anyone makes quilts using old clothes and if you have pictures of these quilts to show. Is there anything in particular you look for when purchasing used clothing for quilting? What do you use for batting?
I don't have a 'stash' so working from that is not feasible.
I am wondering if anyone makes quilts using old clothes and if you have pictures of these quilts to show. Is there anything in particular you look for when purchasing used clothing for quilting? What do you use for batting?
I don't have a 'stash' so working from that is not feasible.
#39
As with most children, we had many clothes outrgown with small holes or a stain here and there. The clothes were too good to throw away, but not in good enough shape to pass onto someone else. I cut squares of white fabric, about 12" each, then let the kids each have a few blocks to design with their paints. I made a quilt for my aging mother, including hands dipped in material paint, and signed squares by each child. Once I put the quilt together, we wrapped it up for a Christmas gift for granny. She cried when she saw all of the squares, and knew they were from the kids clothing. Twenty-five years later, she still shows off this quilt to anyone visiting her. Sure can tell I was a newbie back then! But even with all of the mistakes and uneven areas, she's very proud of this!
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