Boosting a jacket

This year I wanted to make a jean jacket for my friend Marnie. She had admired the one that I made for myself some years back and I decided that it was time for her to have one too!!

The first step was to make a pattern for the back. I took some lightweight tracing paper and pressed it into the seams on the back, leaving a perfect pattern…..

Now I needed to add some flowers. This is the first set that I auditioned…..

….but decided to use different designs and forgot to take a photo of the new pattern!

I now cut out a piece of Wonder Under that would fit on the back of the jacket and ironed it to the INSIDE of the jacket….

Of course, when I started removing the paper, I had issues with it coming loose….

I HATE when that happens, but I now know how to fix it!! Thirty seconds in my freezer…..

….did the trick and the rest of the paper peeled off perfectly……

Next step was to draw the designs on the jacket back and start CAREFULLY cutting them out…..

Honestly, this is the hardest part of this project!! When finished it looked like this….

Now to pick the fabric to use. But, I had cheated on this!! When Marnie was in my studio a couple of weeks ago, I had several pieces of fabric sitting out and I looked to see which one she went to first. This was it…..

So, I placed the fabric down on my ironing board and placed the cutwork jacket on top of the fabric, being sure that the fabric piece was big enough to cover all of the Wonder-Under on the jacket back.

I made a few adjustments and then ironed the jacket and the fabric together…..

Since I take so much of the denim out, I always worry about messing with the “structural integrity” of the jacket so I go one step further and put a lining over the cut out area.

This was accomplished by cutting a piece of Wonder Under that was the size of the back panel and ironed it to the backside of another piece of fabric…..

I folded the fabric edges over and fused it to the inside back…..

I sewed it in place along the pre-existing seams…..

The final step was to quilt around each of the shapes several times…..

This is finished product…..

I decided that she needed a small flower on the front but, instead of cutting the denim, I simply appliqued it in place…..

I am thrilled with how it turned out!!

It is a very simple project and can be made with an old jacket that needs an update or a brand new one!!

So….get busy and let’s have a chorus of Cut-Work Jean Jackets!!

Every Tuesday I provide a tip, technique, or product review. Please subscribe to the blog to ensure that you don’t miss ANY of them!!

Growing my garden…

When I left you yesterday, I had finished Grid quilting the sky, and was ready to start placing the flowers, stems and leaves.

I made my basic plan for flower placement……

….and cut out a bunch of stem strips with the fusible attached….

…and a nice selection of leaf shapes as well…..

I started by pinning the pieces in place…..

….and then used my tiny iron to fuse them in place……

I like to use a Dritz “Petite Press” (Click HERE to see it on Amazon)…

When they were all fused down, I removed the flowers once again…..

….and quilted/outlined each stem and leaf…..

I replaced the flowers and stitched them in place…..

For most of the, I didn’t worry about the points being loose….

I think that will add another layer of dimension to the piece!!

Well, it’s almost finished…..

Com back tomorrow and we will put the finishing quilting touches on!!

In this blog, I post DAILY stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.

Type your email…

This post contains affiliate links. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. I may earn a small commission if you purchase thru the links provided here. It does NOT change the price that you pay for any items you buy.

A Bit of Applique

Since I seem to be working in alphabetical order, let’s look at the Applique category. I always find it interesting that both turned applique and raw-edge applique are included in the same category.

Regardless, here are a few of my favorites.

Since many applique quilts are filled with flowers, this one stood out as being different…..

Note that each of those pieces are finished with a piped edge. That is a LOT of piping!!

There are so many wonderful touches in this next quilt….and I apologize that I failed to get the name of the maker. IF you recognize the quilt, please let me know the details so that I can add them here….

Not only is the applique impeccable, but the quilting adds a new dimension….

….and there are some sweet touches too…..

I am a sucker for daisies……

Look at this fun border….

This quilt truly appealed to me….

“My Favorite Indigo Blue and KUMIKO” by Chiyoko Yoshimori

It is such an imaginative way to use bias binding!!

AND, it got me thinking about planning a hand applique with Celtic Applique or something similar!!

Isn’t this fun!!

The Third-Place quilt was one that truly caught my attention…..

There are SO many things about this quilt that were interesting, starting with the floor…..

….and continuing to the individuals in the view…..

The Second-Place ribbon went to…..

It was exquisite in the piecing, applique, and quilting!!

The Winner of the Category was…..

Again, the details were well done and the workmanship was exquisite!!

We met Lyn as she stood with her quilt and loved her interaction with several students who were asking questions about the quilt, particularly about her inspiration for the quilt…..

Lyn Keogh talks about the inspiration for her 1st place quilt

She was a kind and humble woman and we enjoyed talking with her.

So….that is the Applique Category……

Tomorrow I will tackle a special Exhibition called “Athletes”! Come back for some amazing quilts and an interview with their maker!!

If you don’t want to miss my personal tour of the International Quilt Festival, be sure to subscribe…….

Type your email…

“A Whale of a Time”

Yesterday I posted about the next steps in making a fun baby quilt.

Now it was time to finish it up!!

I sewed the strip-sets together with straight lines and was happy with how it looked…..

It did make a lot of difference to have occasional straight lines among all of the curves.

Once the entire back was put together……

….it was time to trim it into a proper rectangle. I once again used my Laser Square to show the edges….

….and then cut carefully along that long red line…..

Now it was time to fuse down the appliques……

….and add the borders…….

I picked this variegated thread to use in the water areas…..

Yes, I know that this is a serger thread, but I have NEVER had any problems quilting with it and I LOVE the colors that it comes in!!

I used my “Dog grooming bars” to keep the quilt up off of the table and added another table just under my right elbow to keep the quilt from pulling that direction….

Most of the quilting was done with soft curves…..

….although I had to be careful to quilt along EVERY ONE of the fused edges.

When I first started quilting, I thought that it looked horrible but as I added more and more lines, it became more likable!!

When I got to the sky area, I decided to do something different…..

But, it looked horrible, so I spent an hour and unpicked all of it and started over with more curves…..smaller curves this time!!

As I quilted I was concerned because the quilt felt stiff. I wasn’t sure if that was from the spray basting, the fused fabric, or some other anomaly that I didn’t know. I was scared that it wasn’t going to be a “cuddly” baby quilt.

Here is the final photo before washing…..

….and everything does look nice and crisp.

But I am much happier with the photo AFTER washing…..

Now you can see the softness and feel it too!!

Many thanks to my daughter for asking me to make this quilt. It was a fun diversion!!

Do you struggle to decide what to quilt in your blocks? If so, check out my FREE series…..

Click HERE for more information

Strip cutting

Yesterday we looked at the fabric pull for the ocean/whale baby quilt.

In the original (pieced) pattern, she has one fabric that appears several times in the waves and also in the Sashing. Maybe I should pick that one first.

My eye immediately went to this fabric…..

It has all of the colors that I am wanting to use so THIS will be my main fabric!!

Since I have changed this pattern so drastically, I needed to do some calculations and thinking before I actually started cutting the fabric.

I decided to start cutting strips, mostly at 4 inches in width. As I cut, I reduced that size some for a few of the strips.

The most important thing with this quilt is the fabric placement, so I really want to have all of my strips cut before I start fusing them together.

Also, after looking at the pattern further, I am thinking that it might be good to have some straight lines every so often, so maybe I will do the fabrics in sets of four or five and then sew those strip sets together.

Regardless, I still need to get my fabric placement.

After a few minutes of cutting, this is where I landed…..

NOT that this is what the final layout looked like, but at least I knew that I liked the colors!!

NOW it was time to start cutting the curves.

I drew the first curve on Wonder-Under and ironed it to the middle of one of the 4-inch strips…..

Once I had cut it on the line, I realized that I now had TWO strips……

OKAY….that was fun!!

Now came the frustrating part of this venture. I kept saying that I was…..

Appropriate….eh???
The problem was trying to get the waves to be opposite to one another, remembering that the wonder-under had to be reversed and that everything had to fit in the strip!!

It simply WASN’T working so I walked out of the studio and had a little think about it!!

The next day, I decided that for each strip set, I would use ONE base fabric and attach strips to either side of it.

This seemed to work better.

The first step of this NEW process was to draw an alternating wave on the backside of the Wonder Under…..

I would then carefully lay the next strip of fabric over the Wonder-Under….

Carry it carefully to the ironing board, being sure to keep the fusible strip on the correct edge of the fabric strip……

….and then iron the Wonder-Under in place, making sure that the cutting line is as close as possible to the fabric edge…..

I was sure to iron on a Teflon mat so that I didn’t destroy my ironing board cover!!

After cutting it out, the strip fit PERFECTLY…..

PHEW!!!! I was losing my mind over this one!!

Come back on Saturday and we will resume the making of this CUTE quilt!!

If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..