I have such a soft spot for quilted clothes! It may be partly an underdog thing. Quilted garments are often unfairly maligned among garment sewists. It’s like, you can’t be a serious hobbyist if you incorporate quilting into your oeuvre. But here I am, serious hobbyist, having just finished a quilted t-shirt.
This shirt idea came to me when I saw a photo of the Isabel Marant Landers top. It looks like just the thing to wear for this cool spring. The top is 3 layers. The top and the bottom are a silk-cotton voile, and the batting layer is a heavyweight cotton-rayon knit. Both fabrics started out white. For the first step in the project, I dyed all the fabric lavender in the same dye bath.
After the dying, I layered the pieces of fabric with the batting layer sandwiched between the 2 voile layers, cut, quilted, and assembled. All seam allowances and edges are encased in bias strips of the voile fabric.
back view
hem detail
the 2 fabrics I quilted together: the knit batting is on the left, the silk-cotton voile is on the right
Hong Kong finished seam
button detail
Here are some other quilted garments I’ve made. Click on the photo to go to the blog post.
This quilted jacket was also influenced by an Isabel Marant garment!
Rolling in Cloth 
14 Comments
Hello I love this .you have inspired me .its actually a great way of using delicate fabrics in a cool climate. Had you ever thought of sewing it all together and the dying it ? If you decided not to why not ??
Thanks! The reason that I did they dyeing first is that dye is very unpredictable. Actually, I dyed 2 lots of fabric for this project. The first was a pink color that came out far too intense. It made my eyes hurt to look at it, so I put it aside for a future project (probably for my kids). I took out more fabric and dyed it this lavender color, which I like a lot.
But really, all kinds of things can go wrong with dye. Often, different fibers take the dye very differently even if they are all cotton. Even natural fiber fabrics undergo a ton of chemical treatment before they reach my fabric closet, and I don’t know about any of it. These treatments, like mercerization, can affect the way the fabric takes dye. Thread, especially, seems to behave unpredictably in a dye bath, so I would not have known what thread to use for the quilting if I put the whole thing together before dyeing.
Generally, it’s better to get the unpredictable parts out of the way before putting too much work into a project.
Gorgeous color! Hopefully it’s warming up enough to wear it.
Thanks! I’m wearing it layered today.
Brilliant! A quilted t-shirt is perfect for this transition season! Yours is beautiful! Love the colour!
Thanks!
That looks lovely. I hope you enjoy lots of occasions to wear it! (And get lots of well deserved compliments)
Thanks! I’m wearing it today.
So pretty! I love the color, and the details.
Thanks! I like the way the color came out, as well.
Wow, I never knew such things existed…well, except for anoraks etc. I think the shirt looks lovely, too hot to wear here though 😦
Thanks!
This is just beautiful! And the dye color is so lovely.
PS: I nominated you for a Liebster Award! You can check it out at my blog (http://lifeinamadshouse.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/the-liebster-award/) if you like. =)
Thank you! For liking my project, and for the award!
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