Improv Quilting: Adventures with Scraps!

 I've been sewing my first button down shirt, and to do that I made a muslin mock up. Now that my shirt is 80% of the way done, I've been thinking of all the fun things I can do with the muslin fabric from the mock up. I definitely want to use all of it up. While it wasn't expensive, it is fully functional and therefore I don't want to waste it. Also, on a personal note I want to try and be low waste when possible, and recycle what I can.

I took the muslin mock up scraps and black scraps from Riley's quilt and decided to try improv quilting to make a dish towel. The only rule I set for myself was no seam ripping. Whatever I sewed, I just went with it. I sewed the pieces together pretty randomly, just trying to maintain an interesting balance of black and white. If there was a lot of extra fabric on a seam, I sometimes left it because I don't need to worry about bulk for a simple dish towel. After piecing everything together, I quilted the top, trying to get close to a lot of seams in an attempt to prevent fraying. My reasoning is that I'll be washing this towel quite a lot and it will need some reinforcement. 

Here is the finished result:


I'm very very happy with it. There are a lot of things I would consider "mistakes" if I were quilting or sewing in serious but since this was an experiment I just let them be. I am only 1/4 of the way through Riley's quilt and have about half of the muslin shirt left, so expect more improv in the future!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simplicity 8193 Pattern Review

Image
I've decided to get into historical costuming. I'm not particularly worried about historical accuracy so maybe I should say I'm interested in history bounding and wearing historically inspired clothing. I have a lot to say about it and more to write about it, but I think I'll save that for another blog post.Today I'm going to talk about my experience sewing the Simplicity 8193 pattern, in the hope that other people who want to make this pattern feel more confident to do so. This isn't the first time I've tried to sew apparel clothing, but it is the first time I've sewn from a clothing pattern.The first times I've tried to make clothing were... less than successful. I also wanted to try learning to sew from patterns because I want to learn the sewing intuition that goes into sewing different types of garments. For example: which pattern pieces to sew first and what parts can be guessed at and which need to be exact.  For this garment, I saw that it...
Read more

Bone and Chain

Image
Yay, a blog post that can really live up to the blog name! I've been wanting to make a skull quilt for a while now, but was always waiting for the right pattern. Some were too simple and some just didn't have the look I wanted. Luckily, I found the Bone and Chain pattern and thought it was just the most enchanting quilt pattern and perfect for me. I really enjoy this pattern because while the skulls are definitely not replicas of real skulls, they are very charming stylized recreations. I also can't get over how well the blocks interlink to form bones all over the quilt. I've already gotten started and I can't wait to sew up this quilt. One thing I am having difficulty with is all the little pieces. There are tens of different shapes you need to cut out. I'm managing this with liberal uses of plastic bags which unfortunatly has coninced my cat they are very fun toys. For this quilt, I'm using the Ghouls and Goodies line by Moda. I bought this ...
Read more