From Tragedy to Treasure

About 10 days ago, my friend Alicia (see Ramblings: A Compilation), asked me to make her a t-shirt blanket for her mom's birthday.  I said sure, and then she told me that she wanted to me to make the blanket out of her dad's old clothes...  Alicia's dad passed away last year in a car accident the day after Thanksgiving.  Since that horrible day, their family (along with friends, coworkers and really anyone who had ever met Mr. A) has dealt with the grief one day at a time.  


Alicia thought that making her mom a blanket out of her hubby's (of 30 years!!) clothes was the perfect way to create a keepsake that would last her for years and years to come.  So Alicia and I got to work.  I helped her go through his clothes to pick out pieces that would best represent him.  It was nice hearing the many stories that were attached to each piece of clothing.... from the many Jimmy Buffett shirts to the bathing suits that he lived in, to the PINK shorts that he swoooooore were RED, to the crazy ties. :)


So here's a little "how to" section of the blanket making.  


This is what I started with... 

From there, I cut out a cardboard square as a template in attempts to keep all of the squares the same size.  

That idea quickly went out the window because the designs on Mr. A's shirts were all different sizes and I didn't want to leave anything out!  So I just started to "wing it".  

Then comes the interfacing.  I learned how to use it when I made Alison's baby clothes blanket and it is a miracle!  There are two types of interfacing... the iron-on kind and the sew-in kind.  I'm all about easy, so iron-on, here we go!  Interfacing makes it easier to sew stretchy material... it temporarily gives the t-shirt (or whatever other stretchy material you're sewing) some stability.  Then once washed, it eases back up into its original comfy state. :)  

Step 1: put the fabric face down

Step 2: put the interfacing on the back of the fabric so the "bumpy" soon-to-be sticky side is against the fabric.  

Step 3: put something over the interfacing so the iron doesn't burn it... I used a flannel-y fabric

Step 4: Spritz the cover fabric with some water and then iron it!

Do that to every square that's stretchy... it takes time, but you will LOVE yourself for doing it when you're sewing all of your squares together and they are all staying where they are supposed to, not bunching all up to create bizarro ripples.

Then I fiddled with all of the squares until I found a pattern that worked and I sewed it all together :)

Then I cut strips for the trim and sewed those on...  

 cut out big squares to sew together for the back..

Lastly, you make a sandwich with three layers: the front, middle layer of batting, and the back!  Sew it all together like a pillow, pull it ride side out and TA DA!!  you have a finished blanket :) 

 

Alicia gave her mom the blanket last night and rumor has it that Mrs. A loved it!