Three shirt quilt...

So, what do you make when your brother hands you a bag with three of his favourite shirts, and says, "make something with them?"

Mm, cut off the cuffs and collars, save the buttons, and sit on the idea for a few years.

Then, the inspiration finally came, the fabric finally spoke to me. Cut the fabric into 2 1/2" strips, sew together the strips and then cut into 6 1/2" blocks. Sew together:

 As l have said in the past, quilting is not my favourite part, but l have also decided to push my boundaries in this regard.

So I grabbed the first thing that came into my hands to draw the quilting lines on.  Big mistake, I picked up a blue tailor's chalk pencil.....and it didn't want to brush out!

Great, get online, and guess what?  It appears that this is not unusual.

So, what was I to do?  I mixed up a paste of Vanish and water, and with an old toothbrush brushed this mix over the lines, throw into the wash, pray a little, and yes the pencil marks did come off!

Relieved.

I was hoping to give this quilt to my brother before l posted this, but that we couldn't get our schedules to sync. So here's your quilt Mark, I hope you like what I decided your three shirts should become:

I'm pleased with it.

Happy sewing everyone.

Sandra

A-line skirt.

I'm still on my self drafted pattern quest.

In a previous post French cuffs I had self drafted this pattern with long sleeves and french cuffs, since I like to make a pattern more than once (because of the amount of time it takes to draft and get to the final stage).

This time I made it with short sleeves, why?  Hmm, didn't have enough of this fabric to make it up as a long sleeve shirt. I also decided that I wanted to use lots of mother of pearl buttons that I had purchased online:

The skirt is an A Line pattern I made up from a wool/polyester fabric I had purchased for $7 a meter.

In hindsight, I should have cut this skirt on the bias to make the check more interesting.

The skirt is fully lined.

I know it is summery looking, but the skirt is quite a winter weight.  However, it suits me because I often find when indoors during winter that it gets too hot.

Working on a quilt or two right now as gifts, so maybe my next post will be about this.  Or maybe the new Ottobre magazine would have arrived by then!

Happy sewing everyone.

Sandra

Japanese Obi

Recently l was given this Japanese Obi and fabric.

I don't know whether l can bear to cut the Obi up.  I guess if l don't, it'll just be placed in a cupboard, and if l cut it up, then l feel that l've cut up a piece of history.

What to do?  I really don't know.

I think l'm going to send it to the dry cleaners and decide on it's outcome after it comes back.

Have you any suggestions to give me?

Happy sewing everyone.

Sandra