From Garment to Quilt Block
My newest workshop offering, Worn to Warm: Upcycle Garments to Quilt Blocks was directly inspired by things I’ve learned on Zak Foster’s Quilty Nook! I watched a replay of an older workshop hosted by Luke Haynes and sat riveted watching him deconstruct garment after garment to prepare for quilting. I’ve been similarly mesmerized by Kat Van Bourgondien’s Instagram reels showing her process of taking garments from clothes hanger to these unbelievably adorable little rolls. My friend Cosy and I co-hosted a Garment Deconstruction sewing circle on the Nook, and I learned even more and had so much fun taking apart an old skirt while we talked.
During our Garment to Quilt Blocks workshop, each person will cut apart a piece of clothing and combine it with fabric scraps to make a quilt block. There are so many different ways to re-use a garment, and we’ll discuss lots of ideas and each person can choose their own sewing adventure. Some people might choose to plan ahead and use some sort of block-based concept like a 9-patch or a log cabin or a sawtooth star, while others may opt for a more improvisational approach.
As one example, I took one of my daughter’s old dresses that isn’t too precious that has a stain on the back that won’t come out that makes it not a good candidate for donating or giving to a friend, and took it apart to make a little quilt block with it
I found solid scraps with similar colors that appear in the dress, and improvisationally pieced them together to make a mini composition
I can’t wait to see what the students will create in our time together!
I’ve also made a few other quilts recently with garments (these took more time than we’ll have in our three-hour workshop, but hopefully help give some ideas and examples of possible directions!)
Snow Bear started when I cut up an old collared shirt that didn’t feel good to wear anymore, and it felt quite cathartic to cut it up! I learned a technique for hand piecing snowball quilt curves with Maura Ambrose (also a replay on the Quilty Nook!) and for this piece, I retained the little details from the garment for use in the quilt, like the cuffs:
and armpit seams:
Then I added a bunch of bear paw style quilt blocks and machine pieced them together with the curves to make a bigger composition
For another recent quilt, Hope is a Bird, I used a linen blend shirt as the background fabric for applique:
And my SPLAT quilt features lots of applique of a large turquoise skirt on an old sarong:
Looking back at all these quilts is making me even more excited for the workshop in November! I learn so much from my students, and look forward to seeing how they will interpret this concept.