ProjectQUILTING - PQ15.5 - Wearables

WEARABLES

Welcome to The Joyful Quilter!!  And... Welcome to the wonderful world of Project QUILTING hosted by Kim Lapacek @ Persimon Dreams!!  This is my 5th year of participation in the Challenge.  (I'm surprised it took me more than a season and a half to figure out that I've participated longer than 3 years!)  Anyway, Trish Frankland @ QuiltChicken is the creator of the crazy challenges that participants will face during the next 4 weeks.  This week's challenge is long overdue, since from its inception, ProjectQUILTING was modeled after the TV show ProjectRUNWAY.

Sassy @ Farm Quilter got me started at the beginning of Season 11 by inviting her readers to join in the fun.  I accepted her invitation and the rest is history.  As I have for the past two years, I will be dragging along my friend LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color again this season, as she enjoys having a reason to stretch her creative wings.  Would YOU like to join me in this creative journey, too?  

FAIR WARNING:  It's a wild ride, but oh SEW rewarding!

Challenges are given and start to finish you have ONE WEEK to complete your project.  PQ 15.5 can be found at THIS LINK:

Step One...

I wonder.   How on Earth I will be able to create a wearable in a single work week?!

Step Two...

Read the instructions to see what is required of the fifth challenge.  Here's what Trish had to say:

PQ 15.5 WEARABLES

For this week’s challenge, we’re working with “wearables” – I want you to either start or end fashionably. Here’s what I mean.

 

One option is to turn clothes into something else. Are you ready to recycle your wedding dress into something new? Is it time to make a special project from t-shirts or old ties? I hear denim makes great rugs!

 

Or, you could quilt-ify something you wear. Try some visible mending and embellish existing pieces, or make a tote or hat or apron.

 

Another option is to use the theme in a quilt. Make a wall hanging about your passion for shoes, or try that Ugly Sweater quilt block pattern (#ad).

She went on to say the following:

 

... there’s a special opportunity for you this week! You can make a piece of clothing. Any piece of clothing you sew will qualify this week: pajama pants, an Easter dress, a jacket, a skirt – you can do it all. And for this, I’m making a one-time-only exception to the usual PQ rules about 3-layers or embellished or pieced, etc. This week only, if you whip up a sewn piece of clothing (from a pattern is fine!) you can enter it in PQ! 

(I’m doing this to allow us scaredy-cats a growth opportunity to try apparel sewing.)

 

Now, don’t get carried away breaking the rules – you still have to BEGIN and END your project between 3/3/24 and 3/10/24 (no WIP projects, please), and it still has to be FINISHED. Done means buttoned, bound, hemmed, zipped, snapped or tied with a bow – your project must be finished to qualify.

 

I cannot WAIT to see where you take this one!

Step Three...

Explore the possibilities.

What are you thinking, Joyful???

My first thought was to make a pair of pieced earrings, but I do love upcycling denim.  I have quite a stack to blow through and there's a bucket hat pattern that I bought YEARS ago at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, but never sewed up!  There's also a T-Quilt waiting in the wings.

Step Four...

Let's stop and narrow down the possibilities.

Step Five...

While pondering Step Four, I headed up to the studio to decide on my supplies:

I head straight for my PURPLE Quilted Scrap Basket.  That is March's Color of the Month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I might want to include it in this week's challenge project:

Tutorial for these baskets can be found HERE.

But...

None of those scraps felt right for the project I've decided on, so I walk down the hall to the auxiliary studio closet (otherwise known as the guest room closet - since we rarely have guests, I annexed the space not long after moving into this house 2.5 years ago.)  I found the following sets of fabrics for consideration:

Butterflies with my own Dye Frenzy creations

Colors pulled from the floral

A rainbow of Ricky Tims hand dyes

Step Six...

Review the rules:

RULE ONE: your project must be wearable, or have been made from previously worn items, or have another connection to clothes, shoes and fashion accessories.

You have one week to meet the challenge. Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline – that is, started on or after March 3, 2024, and linked up by noon Central Time March 10, 2024.

Step Seven... Get to work!!!

After testing out several arrangements, I opted for this combination of fabrics:

Here is a bit of my construction process...

(Scroll down to the bottom of the post NOW, if you don't care to see a blow by blow of the making of my quilt.)

On Monday evening, I deconstructed the sweatshirt that my husband donated to the cause...

What are you doing with a sweatshirt, Joyful?

After work on Tuesday I did some quilting:

It took numerous attempts to find a pleasing arrangement...

But once that was done, the pieces were rough cut:

On Wednesday, the front was assembled, pinned and quilted.  The back was laid out after trimming up:

Thursday was a complete wash:

Metaphorical crickets in the studio. I never went farther than from my bed to the couch all day.  Fortunately, I made it to a point yesterday that being sick today didn't stress me out about finishing my project by Sunday's deadline!

On Friday, I was SEW thankful for having the day off work!  I was feeling much better:

So, after running a few errands, I quilted the back...

And got started on assembling my new jacket:

Well, that went fast!  All that remained to be done was the binding when I headed for bed:

Saturday morning, after linking up with Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge...

I cut and prepared (what felt like) a mile of binding:

By lunchtime, all that was left to do was stitch it on:

After lunch, I took care of that task - AND sewed it down, along with fixing bit that I missed when turning one of the corners.  When you are sewing at 1/8", it's bound to happen sometime:

The only thing that hadn't been addressed was finishing the sleeves...

With a turn of the hem, I'm am thrilled to present my completed Color Block (Wearable) Quilted Jacket, my entry for PQ 15.5:

There is usually a reason that I participate in these challenges...

... And this time, it was because I've been considering a new Quilted Jacket for quite some time and I've made a jacket in a week before.  As luck would have it, I was only scheduled to work two days this week!  Thank you, ProjectQUILTING, for providing me a challenge prompt that worked to fill my desire for a new Quilted Jacket!

There you have it...

Process, product, and the REAL reason for accepting this Challenge.

Follow THIS LINK to the Season 15 overview.  Check back on the Challenge release days (or sign-up to be notified automatically) and there may be one that YOU just can't resist.

It's a SHORT turnaround time!

Depending on the size and complexity of your project, that doesn't HAVE to be insurmountable.  With a little creativity and a few evenings, you really CAN do this!  My project was begun 2 nights after the prompt was announced and was finished with approximately 17 hours to spare!  My post wasn't ready for release until the morning of the deadline.  Since I have a thing about releasing my PQ posts on Sundays anyway, that wasn't a problem.  I joined Kim's Link Party immediately afterwards.

Until next time...

Challenge accepted!!!

Remember:  If I can do this, YOU can do it, too!

(Plus, there's a spot to post your completed Project QUILTING inspired projects AFTER the deadline for any of the challenges.)

Sharing with Cynthia

for

Oh, Scrap!