The new year begins with a new and splendid piece of work: 32 dress shirts to be sewn into four quilts.
Where to begin?
Since the material has been nicely washed and pressed by the client, that saves a great deal of trouble.
I searched online for a large selection of quilts in every possible pattern and colour as examples, and the client chose four patterns from among them. The chosen patterns are here:
Simple squares (Kirke)
Squares and strips, asymmetrical (Jaagup)
Squares and strips, symmetrical (Villem)
A pattern in red, black and white (Karl)
I divided the shirts by colour tone into four more or less equal parts:
* shirts in pink and lilac tones;
* pale and dark blue and white patterns;
* orange, green and other warm tones, including linen offcuts;
* red, black and white shirts.
Next I cut all the shirts into their basic parts: fronts and backs, sleeves, yokes. The seams and all the thicker places I cut away. Although the shirts here are of very good quality fabric and little worn, I threw the collars and cuffs away. I kept all the buttons, and the maker's labels as well, to use in the patterns in some interesting way.
I always recommend checking that no worn out material gets in among it. Otherwise you do all that work and after the first or second wash the whole effort may turn out to have been pointless.
The shirts are cut apart and sorted by colour. The yokes with their product labels in a separate pile. In the cardboard box is the small part I will not use.
Now I press the pieces and the cutting into strips can begin.
The dark red shirt is of silk. That one I left whole; it would be a sin to bury silk in among other fabrics. I am sure I will find some more interesting solution for using it.
Which pattern to start with, and how wide to cut the strips?
Since red, black and white are colours that cannot later be replaced with pieces left from the other shirts, I will start with those colours. Whatever is left from them can certainly be used later in the other patterns.
Here are a few pictures of the cutting, with comments.
