Another Recycled Quilt from Shirts And Curtain Fabric

 This quilt was the inspiration for another one I wrote about recently as it was my first foray into using old shirt material to make the squares and triangles that make up the design for this quilt.  The old shirts were from my son and husband and had accumulated in my fabric stash and were just crying out to be used for something.  I also used some old curtain fabric -- the satiny brown fabric -- for the side striping that finishes off the design.  And I used a piece of old flannel sheeting for the backing. You can tell that I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to bits of fabric!

Again, I used the fast triangle sewing technique to make up the squares pretty quickly.  If you are working really fast, and a bit slapdash like me, you can skip using the ruler and pencil and just eyeball sew it.  When I cut the squares out, I use a 5" by 5" square piece of cardboard as a guide for the size of each square.  After making as many squares as you can generate from your fabrics, it's time to lay it out and see how you can arrange them in different ways.  This particular design (the blue and orange plaid squares) is called a windmill design and it's easy to do if you just lay them out ahead of time and turn the squares in the right way.  I take my time with designing these, and in this case it was a full week before I had it figured out!

 Once I put the larger squares together it was time to join them together with strips of grey plaid shirting and then finish it off with the bronze edging.  I also stitch-in-the-ditch in a few areas, to join the top piece to the bottom, once I've joined the flannel back to the designed portion. But I don't quilt all of the top to the bottom portion as I like my "quilts" looser.
Lest you think I sew this up in a day or so let me tell you that this type of project can take me several months to complete. I may just cut up the shirting fabric scraps one day. Another day cut them in the 5 inch squares.  Another day stitch the triangles, and yet another day to lay it all out. And yet another day or week to put the surrounding strips on.  The backing on this quilt project was some leftover flannel sheeting I had and that gave it a nice soft feel. I didn't use batting to fill it but I could have used some old blanketing or another layer of flannel sheeting had I wanted this to be fatter and warmer.  I just left it this way, essentially two layers of fabric.  It's just great to tuck around me when I'm reading in bed -- as it's about 4 foot by 4.5 feet wide, and I didn't want something too big.  This size makes for a great lap quilt for keeping you warm watching TV on the couch too and is a size that folds up neatly and can be easily stored nearby where you might use it. Everything was scrap fabric so again I felt virtuous upcycling, recycling and reusing all these bits of fabric that were piling up in my fabric stash.

Quilt Made During Pandemic: Recycled Shirts

Well, I pulled together a lap size quilt this past week from some old bits and bobs of fabric I'd been accumulating.  Most of the scraps were cut out pieces from old shirts from my husband and son. They are pretty hard on their shirts and once I can no longer sew the rips in the seams or shoulders or the tears that can't be patched, I cut up the shirts, open up the sleeves, etc.  Then I cut out 5 inch squares and start making a quilt.  I think this quilt is made from about five shirts, although I have scrap squares left over that I will turn into something else. Maybe a pillow....
One of the ways I have speeded up sewing quilt squares into triangle shapes was one I learned from a television show on sewing called "Sewing with Nancy" that I stumbled upon one day. Who says you can't learn from watching TV?
Anyway, to really make triangles fast the method is to get your two different squares sewn together fast by sewing two different squares together by putting the two right sides together and then stitching diagonally across from one corner to the other. Then you sew
a seam either side of that diagonal, about 1/8 inch away, so you end up with three seams running diagonally corner to corner.  Then you just snip through and across the middle seam, that is, the middle diagonal line of stitching, and hey presto, once you open it up, you have two squares made of two different triangles stitched together.  You just press them out then arrange them in rows, and then sew it up!  I try to make the whole thing as geometric as possible.  Usually, I bind the edge with strips of left over material sewn together to finish it.
I'm not the neatest sewciopath but over all, I'm usually pretty happy with how these come out.
And for the batting inside I used an old blanket piece, attached that to the patterned side of the quilt and then put on the backing (which was made up of discarded T-shirt material, so very soft and cottony) and then stitched it all together and turned it right side out (left about a foot unstitched so I could turn it right side out.  Then hand sewed that final foot and pressed the whole thing.  And eh voila, a lap quilt for keeping knees warm when curled up on the sofa watching tv or when reading in bed and when you don't or won't need a full size blankie. And it's all reuse and recycle or upcycle, and I feel virtuous that I didn't fill up the landfill!

Old Socks Become Lace-Edged Wrist Cuff Warmers

Lace border on the "sock" sleeve extender

Used quite a long sock for the sleeve extender

I stitched up some lacy sleeve cuff extenders recently to keep my wrists warm over the winter.  These were made out of old socks that I cut the feet off from and then just quickly stitched on a lace border, stretching the sock as I sewed the border on.  There was no need to stitch the top as the sock top is sufficient.  I just wear these on my lower arms, especially when the sleeves of the sweater don't reach all the way to my wrist (as I have long arms).  And they can make a dumpy sweater look a little  more interesting!  I made a pair of these and am quite happy with this reuse of a pair of old socks and some left-over lace border! I just slip them on when I think my wrists might get chilly!

Transforming Cargo Pants into Small Cargo Bag

There seem to be a lot of jeans in the fabric stash, so once again I stitched together a bag using an old pair of my son's khaki cargo pants that were horribly worn in the knees and way too small for him.  I just hacked off the pieces that had the wonderful big pockets on them and made those the sides of the bag after opening up the pant seams and stitching two big pieces together.  I then made a strap out of the rest of the leftover fabric and found another piece of fabric in my fabric stash to make a lining. This fabric was something I'd hacked off the bottom of a pink dress that I had remade into a shorter version -- you can tell I hang onto all kinds of bits of fabric!  I then embellished this bag with some brown grosgrain ribbon left over from some other project and stitched in some Velcro snaps in the top so the bag could be closed. And, hey presto chango, I had a small cargo bag.  Now, this became a gift to my sister who thought it very useful to carry all those extra things she wants to take to work with her, like shoes, or make-up or lunch.  She noted that the outside pockets were great for cell phones or keys.  I said "the whole thing is washable too!"  I just love hacking through my fabric stash with these types of useful recycling projects!

Pink floral lining and Velcro "snaps" at top of bag

Spray Painting Trash Into Treasure

Several months ago I picked out of the trash from the alleys around here a little round wooden table and a plant holder. I've been hanging on to them and nearly threw them back out again (nope, I'm not one of them TV hoarders!) except I got some pink spray paint recently on sale ($2 a can!) and just knew what to do with it. After a quick wipe down, over about three days I spray painted these items outside with about three coats of paint, letting them dry overnight.  I put these items out on my front porch to join the other colorful chairs and plants there.  I'm quite happy about this recycle-reuse activity as I really did need a little table on the porch for cups of tea and cookies and that plant really did need someplace to belong other than the floor. That's the trick to not being a hoarder, you just have to do something with it right away!