Up-cycled shirt patchwork quilt

As I'm sure most of you do, we have a serious hoard of old clothes that haven't ventured out the wardrobe for months, if not years, but haven't quite made it to the charity shop yet! 

I'm also sure most of you can empathise with how difficult it is to get rid of certain clothes sometimes......'it might come back into fashion again', 'I've not worn it enough times', 'its still in half decent condition', or the most common one for me is 'I just love it and can't bring myself to part ways just yet'. 

In the case of these shirts below...they had managed to make it out of the wardrobe but unfortunately  not into the bin - despite worn out holes, being ripped and generally a bit tatty. Sick fed up with an untidy pile of old clothes in the spare bedroom, I decided to do something else with the shirts instead.

 Enter the latest issue of Mollie Makes and the gorgeous quilt project by Nikki Trench from her new book 'a passion for quilting'. The idea behind the project is to gather bits and pieces of fabric you already have or something that has a special meaning, so using the shirts seemed perfect. 

As seen in Februarys' issue of Mollie Makes, the patchwork quilt project by Nikki Trench

So off I got to work cutting out my squares. I decided to make slightly smaller squares than suggested as it was easier to just cut round the grid ruler that I had already. If you've never used a rotary cutter before your missing out! Nothing gives super straight sharp lines like it! Its one of those really satisfying cuts! 

 I used 6 shirts in total and ended up with almost 160 squares! 

 Laying it all out become a bit complicated. I don't have a surface big enough in my house so had to use as much of the bed as I could then spill it onto the floor. 

 Next was stitching all those squares together. It was a bit of a slog but I got a system going and managed to get my time to stitch a strip down to about 7 minutes. It all got a bit competitive by the time I reached the 14 strip!

 And here is my finished quilt....

 ......with pockets incorporated.

 I decided to use a navy blue soft and cosy brushed cotton for the back to contrast with the light colours of the shirts. I used white quilting thread to make the squares stand out more on the back too. 

What to do with crochet granny squares?.......Bunting!!

Before I left to go on my South American adventure last November I got together a crochet project ready to take with me. I had been knitting and sewing so much before I left that going away for 7 weeks without doing anything crafty seemed pretty hard. 


I had bought the gorgeous 'Cute and Easy Crochet' book by Nikki Trench not long before I left and decided to take some supplies with me to make one of her throws (see previous blog post). 

The same throw was recently featured in Mollie Makes Magazine

I knew there would be long plane and bus journeys so thought it might be a good way to pass some time. Unfortunatly my little scissors got confiscated at security at Birmingham Airport (too pointy apparently) so I had to buy a nail clipper to cut my yarn...quite effective once I got the hang of it! 


So I had great intentions...had all my yarn ready....colour scheme decided...copied out the pattern...had my nail clippers and hook...

The yarn I used was Amy Butler belle organic aran for Rowan 

......hmmmmmm, things didn't quite go as planned....I managed to make about 20 squares in total...... 

 So all this yarn had a lovely trip too...being stuffed in my rucksack for 7 weeks....

I think its hard to just have one project on the go at one time. I missed my vintage top I was knitting before I left...but I could't have brought that too!  


So for all of you out there who have more that one project on the go...good for you!! Variety is the key I say.... especially when it come to me and to crochet. 


So instead of making up the throw I decided to so something that had more instant results.....bunting! Everyone loves a bit of bunting and using crochet squares makes for a good alternative to the traditional triangle ones.