Random Acts of Patchwork

I haven’t learned to be a real quilter yet ~ perhaps I am just not ready for the discipline of cutting exact pieces and  putting them in an exact order.  I admire the detail work so much and I know some day I will cross over to the “quilting” side of life.

Random Acts of Patchwork

I do however enjoy random acts of patchwork! In my day job of making pretty skirts for women of all shapes and sizes, I have a lot of smaller squares and circles of material left. Over time I have ended up with bins and bins of pretty good size pieces that are being saved for the day I begin to quilt.

Vagabond Hobo Skirt

In the meantime, when I get in a mood to put bit and pieces together, I do two things ~ The first is to cut blocks of a particular width sew them into a strip and them sew the strips together ( first photo ) but in a totally random way just to make enough yardage that I can make a skirt out of it. I don’t even pay attention to what goes where from the preselected pile of blocks, strips and slivers.

The next way I use my scraps is hobo piecing directly on a backer skirt that I cut out of muslin (pre-washed, of course). I just start sewing my scraps on the backer skirt one at a time sometimes overlapping but never finishing the edges. I add small bits of rick rack or a piece of ruffle where I see fit. This feels more like making a collage but I have yet to try to make a picture just a pretty color story.

After I have all the patches sewn on and all the muslin covered. I sew wavy lines around and around starting at the bottom and ending at the top.  The hem is finished with the serger moving the edge slightly to produce another wavy line and finish of the waistband in a normal way.  I’ve made several of these and wore them all winter long. It’s just like wearing a quilt ~ comfy and warm

I’ve now washed it many, many times and the frayed edges are my friends. I have come quite in touch with my hippy/bohemian side and I enjoy knowing that some ladies will love my skirt when I walk by and other’s will turn up their noses at the crazy old lady  ~ LOL ~ rosie

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