When
lockdown hit, I wanted to do something that would keep me occupied (didn’t we
all). I wanted something new, or at least something I hadn’t done for a while.
I tried knitting by creating a miniature blanket, but also wanted to make a
patchwork quilt.
I haven’t
sewn so much as a button or mended a rip for… well, a very long time, so I was
pretty much making it up as I went along. If you are a sewer, you might want to
skip this one…
I had
bought a lot of silk for this project. Previously I had bought fat quarters of
cotton when I first had the idea, but when it came to using it I wasn’t very
inspired. I wanted something special.
I cut a
great many strips of fabric, and arranged it into little boxes so I could
easily get to them. This was my first mistake—silk easily shreds, and goes
EVERYWHERE. It’s also pretty fragile. Now I would use interfacing to back it,
as I did with version 2.
I wanted
two designs, one diamonds, the other squares. Because I wasn’t sure how to do such
tiny pieces, I decided to create strips, and sew them together.
So I
started with a piece of fabric, and a strip of card.
I wrapped
the fabric around the card, and pinned in place.
Then sewed
them together. You can see how much the green fabric was fraying…
This
created a block of strips of fabric.
Rinse and
repeat…
Once it was
long enough, I removed all the card, and laid them out flat. I put on a longer
strip of card…
And wrapped
them again, tacking them in place.
I then
sewed lots of these together side by side.
By
orientating them at an angle, and moving the lines up by one each time I could
get the diamond pattern I wanted.
But at a
cost. You can see how much fabric is on the back!
However,
I’m not one to give up.
I created
piping using string and a very long piece of string that went all the way
around the quilt.
I then
sewed it on all the way around.
Ending up
with:
Next I
added the back on, sewing through the piping to secure it. I filled it with
scraps, including my own little memorial:
Which is
sewn in silk, by the way, and freehand, which is why it looks awkward.
This layer
was created with just straight lines of fabric.
I then
sewed though the quilt to secure both sides together. Traditionally you’re
supposed to create patterns with the thread, but I just made sure the stitches
went between the pieces so they were invisible. I don’t have a sewing machine,
so this was by far the better option for me.
I did iron
the end result, something I would not recommend now as it flattens the piece
too much. The end thing to do with a quit is to wash it to make the material
shrink, and puff up. However, I didn’t do that as I was afraid it would ruin
the silk.
Honestly,
this project was great fun, and very relaxing. I could just pick it up and work
for ten minutes—or three hours.
The end
result is too lumpy, stiff, warped and a bit too small—but I love it. It was
worth the time and energy!
Comments
Post a Comment