"Anyone that doesn't agree with leggings as pants can physically fight me.
And I'm going to win because I have a full range of motion due to the fact that I am wearing leggings as pants."

Friday, October 12, 2007

Oh, Waiting's So Hard To Do

I've never quilted before. It's not that I don't like them or anything, I just don't really sew all that straight, so I figured it would be an exercise in futility.

However, I recently decided to give it a shot. Mainly because I had a super cool idea for Kenzie's birthday present. (When a mom says she has a super cool idea for a birthday present for a teenager, watch out- it probably isn't. And knowing how my last super cool birthday idea turned out, I should have been more anxious. Oh well, I'm nothing if not optimistic.)

When we first moved into this house, Kenzie wanted a Spongebob room. (more Flickr pictures of her room here.) But, for the last year or so, she's been slowly covering up every inch of wall space with various posters. Goodbye SpongeBob, hello Rock 'n Roll (and Johnny Depp*).

2007 10 17 002

As you can see, lots of music posters (the Janis poster used to be mine, and I was thrilled that someone wanted to use it). Kenzie plays guitar and every now and then there's talk of forming a band, but we haven't been invited to any gigs yet, so I think they're still practicing.

2007 10 05 010

Anyway, I decided to take a bunch of black, band t-shirts and use them to make a duvet cover like this one (so I wouldn't need to actually have it quilted). I looked all over the internet for ideas and was given the helpful suggestion to iron interfacing onto the shirts before cutting to size, so that they wouldn't stretch out or curl up (when cutting or sewing). So, after three trips to the fabric store and the purchase of 2 different kinds of what is basically iron-on glue (Wonder Under and Heat n Bond- not what I should have gotten) I finally decided to actually look for the words 'Fusible Interfacing'. Duh. I'm OK with having bought the other stuff, though, because you just never know when you're going to need to iron two pieces of fabric together.

I was going to do a brief overview of the process, but it's fairly simple and is covered well here and here.

Basically, the main difference between this and a regular quilt is the use of fusible interfacing to stabilize the t-shirts. It's also easier because… 1) big blocks require less cutting and sewing and 2) it's a comforter cover, so there's no need to actually quilt.

What surprised me most about this project, is the fact that it actually turned out pretty great.

2007 10 09 002

Oh, I also made a pillow out of one of the t-shirts that was smaller than I could use.
2007 10 21 002

2007 10 21 003

*Am I the only one that finds it extremely weird that my daughter's crushing on the same guy that I did when I was her age?

11 comments:

kneek said...

I love, love, love this idea. It looks fantastic.

Christine said...

What a badass comforter! I love it.

Angeleen said...

You are SUCH a cool mom!

And, I too, have a serious crush on Johnny Depp.

*sigh* Isn't he just dreamy?

jessica @pianomomsicle said...

Wow. That is the coolest blanket i've ever seen! i'm strongly considering doing that with some of my husband's band t-shirts, because not only would i love for him to stop wearing his disgusting Slayer shirts with skeletons and snakes on them, but i'm pretty sure he'd be ok if they were memorialized in this fashion. Really, really good call on that blanket!

Katherine said...

I love it, Wend. Looks great. Shake the hand of whoever suggested the fusible interfacing - a bunch of people don't use it and their t-shirt quilts (I don't care about the pedantic quilt police either) always seem to turn out pretty wonky.

Top job.

curegirl0421 said...

I'm with you - it's weird to see my 11 year old crush on David Bowie, due to Labrynth, and Johnny Depp for entirely different reasons, when I was doing the SAME THING.

Lesley said...

Hi there,
I just found your T-shirt quilt from perusing the old archives of craftzine.com.
I think it's a brilliant idea. My son, who is about to leave home, has loads of old rock band T-shirts that are too precious to get rid of, even if some of the oldest ones are too small to wear, or too faded. This would be a great idea for him. And get all those old T-shirts off his wardrobe floor!
I like the red border and background you put on it (much more attractive than the grey one in the article you link to).
Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

I have made the pillows from Old t- shirts for years. When the kids were small they had favorite shirts they wouldn't let go. So we made them into Hug me Pillows. Now I use old sweaters too. I have several chenille sweaters that make great pillows.

I am going to be working on a tshirt lap cover soon. Tshirts are from DH motorcycle road trip many years ago.
I love your ideas.

Anonymous said...

Wow, this IS SO Cool! Well done! My kids are still young but I will keep this idea stored for later! Chele

prickly pineapple said...

Hi Wendy! I was strolling thru various websites and blogs on rock n roll quilts and came upon your blog. I love your rock n roll quilt you made for Kenzie! For a person who didn't know how to sew, you did a great job! I also make non-tradition quilts myself.
Thanx for sharing your beautiful quilt!

Laura Theiss ljoldright@yahoo.com said...

Hi Wendy I love your duvet cover. Could you please give me a brief overview of the process since the prior links are broken?
Thanks