quilting with baby clothes

[jrabbit]

I've been planning this for awhile, keeping my favorite baby clothes with the intention of "someday" sewing quilts from them. Well, I'm finally "closer" to my goal, and I spent a good while today surfing the web for tips.

Many of their clothes are jersey/stretch knit. Some tshirts, some onesies - that type of thing. I am imagining an art quilt of 2-3" squares, with a mixture of fabric weights and materials. I was reading instructions for tshirt quilts, but they are mainly geared to making a large block out of the front of the shirt - and stabilizing it with fusible interfacing as well as blocking each square with a non-stretchy sashing.

I could surf endlessly, but I don't have that kind of time (3 dd's, ages 9, 5 & 6 months). Does anyone have any tips for doing it the way I'm planning? Still use the interfacing? Would you fuse it before cutting the squares? or after? I am hoping to only buy fabric for the backing and perhaps a binding or border on the front. (or maybe reuse one of their twin bed sheets)

I'm a novice quilter, but I've been sewing, etc for 30 years.

--janis

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I am thinking of doing the same sort of thing with DS's baby clothes but I think I am going to make a crazy quilt. That way I can fit odd shapes in easily and I think the colors and different fabrics will go together a bit better. Plus it is easier with no cutting until after you sew.

Post a pic when you start it going! Maybe you will inspire me to get going on mine too!

[Incubator]

Doing the same thing here. I've got about a billion cute bibs but we've never used a single one of them. I can't bring myself to get rid of them or give them away, so they must be destined for a quilt. I have no clue how I'm going to do it yet. Probably all different sized blocks with a few odd shapes thrown in here and there.

[zinemama]

I have also been planning to do the same thing someday. Also have a lot of jersey knits.

What I've been thinking is to sew each square cut from the baby clothes to a larger, cotton square first. Making the cotton square big enough to form a "frame" around the baby clothes square. That way I won't have to deal with sashing or interfacing or - most importantly - trying to sew knits together.

Does that make sense?

[AllisonK]

I have made two of these for my oldest kids. I usually give them for Christmas around age 4 because they remember some of the clothes then. Both are queen size and I did 4 x4 inch squares. I did not use any interfacing but in hindsight I would on some of the fabrics. To sew the knits together I used a rectangle of tissue paper and wrapped it around top to bottom then stitched the pieces together. Rip paper off when done. Helped it not stretch as much. I tied these quilts instead of actual quilting and this is where the interfacing would have helped the most I think.

Photos here:
DD's Quilt front
Close up
Back of DD's
Front of DS's
Close up
Back of DS's

[zinemama]

Allison, those are great! How did you decide where to put each square? Or did you just randomly lay it out?

[jrabbit]

yes, Allison, that is exactly what I had in mind! thank you for the explanation. I still am leaning toward interfacing. I don't see myself using the tissue paper method.

this is my latest quilt-top: http://philhyde.smugmug.com/gallery/...16522817_kUjCR (close-up, but it's a small quilt)
2" squares

[zech13_9_goforgold]

I saw a quilt in a fabric store once that was made to look like a clothesline with the favorite outfits hanging off the "line." It looked so adorable. That would be good if you want to keep your clothing in tact, instead of just cutting them apart.