Jacket quilting, help

I've made two. In both cases, the lining was one large piece of fabric, and there was no extra material on the front, only quilting directly on the sweatshirt. They turned out cool, but I gave them away because I realized I hate wearing jackets. :)

A google image search will get you lots of pictures for inspiration:

I have made a good many Denise - just to my own made up conversion! Most of these were presents, but there are a couple on my website:

These were made with two rectangular panels appliquéd onto the front of the sweatshirt, after I had carefully cut it exactly in half. I also use to put a simple block on the back - centre, top. I always pieced the panels (measured the sweatshirt to get the size of the panels. Our sweatshirts are only sold in small, medium, large, extra large ...? If I bought a woman's one, I would buy extra large (I would normally wear a large); if I bought a man's one, I would buy large instead of medium. Because I did very little quilting indeed, that always fitted fine. However, it might make a difference if you are going to quilt it a lot. I did not take my sweatshirt to pieces! so the whole process was simple. They look nice, though! . In message , Denise in NH writes

I made one out of the block swap I did- Terbear's first block swap. I had a few blocks more than covered the whole sweatshirt, so I folded a few in half and used them as pockets for the inside. I cut the seams open on the sweatshirt, laid it out flat, then laid the blocks on internal. where I could, I seamed the blocks together. Where I had to, I just zig-zagged the join direct onto the sweatshirt. Then I meander quilted with a feather stitch all over the whole thing. Re-did the seams, and bound with a different fabric I had enough of. My sweetie calls it my coat of many colors, and I get a lot of compliments on it.

It was in my case. I used an extra-large v-neck sweatshirt.

So plan on making more than one. :)

I would avoid all one piece of fabric for a starter... but you can say make a row of flying geese and use them as a stripe to offset the one color, or a couple of scattered small blocks with the rest all one fabric. The quilting will make whatever you do pop after it's washed.

I would not do a completed lap quilt- but I do recommend using any orphan blocks you may have!

Consider cutting of the sleeves and just making a vest if you prefer them.

Consider making the black with scattered light (etc) dragonflies as the background, and then try to make 6 to 12 inches of something to go on the foreground, like cattails, shrubs, or a pier. Made with something also kind of dark and complimentary, it's still going to look conservative and yet one of a kind. Consider lining it completely with the purple/rose, and that will help the conservative appearance.

Mine ain't conservative, but I'm not that way.

If you make a few to give away to learn the technique, you'll have the pressure off and can just have fun with it. Why not? :)

-georg

I've done two, Denise. Just in case you don't need to read further because they're not what you're talking about, take a look here: . The first one doesn't have much fabric on it at all, but the second one is completely covered.

For the second one I did, I made blocks and then covered the disassembled pieces of the sweatshirt, trimming off the blocks where necessary. Each separate piece was quilted before reassembling the jacket.

I would normally wear a medium sweatshirt, and I used a large for each of mine; they were fine. However, a lot will depend on the quality of the sweatshirt. I have a friend whose jacket is unwearable because it was a cheapie and shrank to doll size. ;S

Good point. I'd do a sample first, just to see what's what.

I think one piece of fabric wouldn't look "funny" -- it would just be different from a patchwork version. If you think you need to do patchwork, can you get some coordinating fabrics to stretch things?

Your fabric selection will determine whether it looks like something your grandma would wear or not.

And I think this is the best idea of all! Make the first one for your biggest niece and see how much it shrinks. That way, it will still fit one of the smaller ones, if it shrinks more than anticipated, and you'll still have your "good" fabric for after you've experimented. And getting Christmas gifts done early isn't bad, either! :)

Best of luck!

Hi Denise, I made one of those and it was alot of fun. I bought a Sweatshirt 1 size bigger and I normally wear. I used fabric left over from a blue and yellow quilt I made. It was easy.

Linda in Tx

I have made a couple of these, but I bought the biggest size seaweatshirt I could find and made quite roomy jackets of mine. If your class recommends one size bigger go with that, but there are lots of variations on this theme.

I cut the side seams and arms seams open, remove all bands and cover the piece with patchwork/quilting, then resew the seams, adjust the finished length and bind the edges. For this method, a few sizes bigger gives scope for changing length, overall size etc., or even leaving it as a jumper style instead of a jacket.

I have a great pattern I saved for one, but it takes a sweatshirt with set in sleeves and all the sweatshirts I can find have the dolman sleeve. Do you have an online sorce?

oooh Georg, I would love to see it!!!!

I took pictures- my husband didn't save the pics... I gotta take new pics and load them and save them, so I can share.

-georg

Thanks for all the ideas, ladies. I just found out that there will only be two of us taking the class, so I guess we'll get lots of attention from the teacher. I think I'm going to bring lots of material with me, some for piecing, some for a one-piece look, and some for kids' jackets, that way I'll be prepared for whatever the teacher has in mind.

Denise

QI