I promised my mom I would make her a pieced and quilted jacket. Out of these fabrics.
See that item over there in the WIP sidebar list, with the status note: ”major procrastination in effect” ?
That’s this one.
These fabrics are, objectively speaking, quite lovely. What you see here is about 3/4 of a layer cake of Moda William Morris reproduction prints (Mum asked me to omit all the ones with pink, lavendar, and mint in them). And props are due to Moda because they did an exquisite job, and the quality of this cotton is just luscious, very fine and smooth and silky.
Too bad I can barely stay awake looking at these colors. I’m up for making my first quilted jacket. Glad to have a reason to tackle one, actually. And I love sewing for my mom because she adores everything I make for her. But blue and beige? Schnnnooooooooorrrrrre.
Nevertheless, when I couldn’t stand another minute of trying to learn InDesign this afternoon (seriously, I didn’t know whether to break down and cry to relieve the pressure or just let my head explode), I went into the sewing room and retrieved the project bin from the closet. I’ve got the fabrics laid out on my ironing board, and if inspiration won’t kick in and deliver a good idea or two, I’ll just have to kick it into gear myself.
{ 9 comments }
I know just how you feel. My mom bought a jelly roll of rainbow batiks and asked me to make her a rainbow order Boston Commons. She had to have it ROY G BIV and it had to be a Boston Commons. So not my thing! I offered to make her any number of other creative solutions to a rainbow quilt, but no dice. she wouldn’t even hear of including white or black. I got most of it done before I ran out of fabric and it turned out much better than expected. I get to blame my mom for running out of fabric because she did the calculations. I’m still not sure how we messed it up that badly.
What if…. you made 2 jackets, one in your Mum’s colour choice & one in colour of your choice? Work on them simultaneously so you’re not swamped with the colours you really don’t like.
After 20+ years of quilting I have way toooo many ufo’s, every so often I pull something out thinking I’ll finish it, but my tastes have changed so much over the years, I just can’t face working on something in fabrics I now dislike.
Those are some of my favoritest fabrics… in THEORY. I’ve been meaning to make a wall hanging with Morris reproductions for LITERALLY ten years. So I totally top your procrastination efforts, at least. My problems is that I just keep… falling asleep. They’re so pretty but so very very… the same….
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..
wait. what were we talking about?
good luck. I have faith in your superior ability to produce.
I love those fabrics, but the main reason is because of their historical significance. Turns out I love the intricacy of designs, most things William Morris and the Arts & Craft Movement. Maybe the dullish colors are due to these being historical repro fabrics and ‘way back when,’ manufacturers were unable to produce (and retain) bright colors. It’s a good thing you were born when you were and not much earlier… you’d have been bored!
Thank you so much for the comments this morning, everyone! Cheered me up to know I’m not alone in how I feel about this project. I’m getting closer to a plan and trying to guesstimate yardage requirements for jacket pieces and figure out how that will emerge from 10″ squares. I’m going to have to supplement at least an additional half-yard (I think), but will stick with these colors/prints as closely as possible. Mom loves ‘em, and I want to deliver something she will adore because it suits her, not just because I made it.
hahah! well, the fabrics are nice… My mother wants a sweatshirt jacket.. I have it sitting here… She want’s blues. perhaps I’ll go buy these same fabrics…. She’d love it too!
My mind just took off when I saw this group of fabrics! I can imagine making a jacket using the William Morris designs from the two books with quilt patterns. You could do a large medallion applique on the back and some smaller, complementing designs on the fronts and sleeves. This would make a stunning jacket. Best of luck!
I don’t have either of the Wm. Morris quilt books, but have looked at them at Amazon and been tempted… maybe when I finish up a few dozen other WIP/UFOs?
After submitting my comment i read back over the other comments and realized I left out part of my design idea. I would also piece the lighter colors into a background in either squares or triangles (or maybe even diamonds). After this background fabric was made the appliques would be stitched over it.