You start with a vintage quilt top.
Quilt it.
Buy a cool jacket pattern.
Cut it out, and sew it together.
Wear!
I'm not sure what got into me to make a quilted jacket. I just knew I wanted the end result to be something other than a quilt. Something useful. It's what repurposing is all about.
After retrofitting my Gammill with a Statler-Stitcher last summer, I had to learn how to use it. This requires fabric. I had an old, less-than-perfect quilt top in my closet that had been waiting for decades to be finished. So it seemed a great solution.
Using an Indygo Junction pattern I found at a local quilt shop, I started cutting the completed quilt. It's always difficult for me to cut a perfectly good quilt into pieces, no matter how confident I am that I'm doing the right thing! But cut away, I did, thinking to myself I hadn't made an article of clothing since...since...I couldn't remember when. Oh, I felt REAL confident, let me tell you!!!!
I chose the Indygo pattern because it was simple - and not only because I hadn't sewn in awhile - but because it suited the genre of quilt I was using. The instructions did NOT tell me how to bind the entire jacket, so some steps were taken blindly. I hope to find a pair of buttons antiquing that will fit this jacket better, but for now, it'll do.
The pattern pieces are perfect for this type of construction: all one piece for the front, and all one piece for the back - no separate sleeve pattern pieces. So I knew exactly how to place the pattern onto the quilt to get the fabrics I wanted in the finished jacket.
In the future, when I make another quilted jacket, I'll pin the front and back pattern pieces together at the shoulder, cut the jacket fabric, load it onto the machine (just like a quilt top), and quilt a symmetrical design. When I unload the finished piece, all I have to do is trim around the jacket (just like a quilt top) and sew the seam under the arms. Voila! Wear!
Did I stop there? No! I was having so much fun I had to make a purse, too. I had just enough quilted pieces to make a companion purse. I didn't use a pattern. I just used the dimensions of my sewing machine cover and sewed away. Why? When this purse isn't on duty as a...well...purse, it serves a second purpose to being my sewing machine cover. Totally cool. That's repurposing.
To make the tab enclosure I used the pattern piece from the jacket.
They go together like peas and carrots! But using them together is a bit too coordinated for me. I usually use the purse separately from the jacket. But they do make good companions.
It's sheer pleasure working with such cheerful fabrics on cold, snowy days...
Scraps was all that was left of the full-sized quilt I started with before making a jacket and purse. Though what I have pictured here may look like a lot, it's not. It's mostly strips and odd shapes that wouldn't even make a bikini. But no worries. I'm not going there. (Phew).
The next time you make another quilt, think out of the box to make it into something other than a quilt. You'd be surprised at what you might end up with.
These photos were taken at the Treasure Shoppe, one of my haunts in town where you indeed can find treasures of collectibles and antiques.
