Incorporate art quilting into your wardrobe.

Sadie Fox-Metter is a garment sewer whose first forays into quilting inspired her latest fashion, and Sandra Lee Chandler loves incorporating her orphan blocks into refashioned garments Fashion quilted couture with us on today's episode of Quilting Arts.

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[Upbeat music] Sadie Fox-Metter is a garment designer and sewist.

And you've also started dabbling in quilting and you're thinking, can I introduce some of these quilted elements into the garments?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

I wanted to create something that I could wear and show off some of my new skills, but also those skills that I have and make wearable art.

And it's a great way to to start conversations and get people talking about, oh yeah, I made this.

And I'm also a quilter too.

Yeah, exactly.

And get people excited about using the skills that they have to create something unique that they can wear.

That's awesome.

And it's great when you can make your own garments, because then you can make things that are flattering to your body type and of the fabrics that you love.

Exactly.

That's the number one reason really, I think, to learn how to sew garments is so that you can create things that fit.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

Well, let's talk about this one.

It's beautiful.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

So this one is it's a linen.

But then I was able to incorpora decorator weight and canvas and other things, and then using some machine stitching to make it almost look like it's hand-stitched.

It's beautiful.

- Thank you.

And I love these panels to on the sleeves.

- Yeah.

And so that's something you can do is kind of like hack a pattern to add elements that have these patchwork pieces to really show it off.

So when you're looking for a pattern that is going to work for something like this.

What do you look for?

I look for something that's very simple.

First of all, not a lot of seems not a lot of pieces.

Fewer pieces means you can take an element like a yoke and and do the technique on the entire yoke.

And then it's part of, of the full garment.

Okay.

And especially if you're not a garment seller to start with it can be a little bit scary.

- You want it to be easy.

Right.

- Yeah exactly.

Yeah.

Especially for the for when you start.

So you can be successful?

- I think so.

Yeah.

- All right.

So are you going to show us?

I'm going to show you how.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Let's slide those down that way.

- Okay.

Yeah.

So the first step, whatever element that you're going to be doing this technique, you want to have a piece of batting or backing.

Now I just used regular quilt batting.

But you could use a fusible fleece or something like that.

And you want it to be slightly larger than the pattern piece that you're going to be working with.

Okay.

- And then.

Because there's a little bit of shrinkage.

There's going to be a little bit of shrinkage.

And you also want to be able to cut out the full piece at the end of that pattern.

Okay.

And so then once you do that it's really just some improvizational laying down of the scraps.

It's a great you know, I like to like pile up my scraps.

I like to use souvenir fabrics when not usually not buying yardage.

I'm buying like something small.

- Right.

Right.

So it's a great use for that.

And then I'm just laying them out in a in a way that is esthetically pleasing to me.

And I love your color scheme here.

You're thinking about how the colors are going to.

I'm 100% thinking about how they relate to each other.

And this is just so beautiful.

Tell me about the one you're wearing.

Thank you.

Yeah, this is a souvenir piece.

So I went to Japan recently and to Kyoto, and there was this wonderful antique store that had a bag of kimono, scraps of silk scraps.

And so this is what I did with it.

But you found pieces that all go.

The colors go together well.

- Yes.

Yeah.

And the same thing here where you've got blacks and browns and tans.

- Exactly.

And a little bit of like gold metallic.

And these are all different weights to, like, I'm not focusing too much.

I wouldn't put a lightweight silk with this one because they're all kind of reasonably the same weight.

But I'm not stressing too much about that either.

- Okay.

So if you're using something that has fusible, you could iron these in place, - Yep.

- but you're just pinning I just pinned I just pinned.

That seemed the easiest for me.

But I know a lot of people like to have it fused down before they go to the machine.

Okay.

- So that is an option.

And then really the other consideration, like this pattern that I'm working with has a facing to the pattern.

So this raw side at the end will be covered.

- Okay.

But it's just something you probably want to think about when you're working with a pattern.

Okay.

Good tip.

All right.

So next you're trying to get to this.

Yeah.

- Okay.

And so once you have it all laid out then the fun gets to start because we're going to be doing some decorative stitches.

Oh beautiful.

- Yeah yeah.

And so that's the next step.

And I like to focus on those raw vertical edges.

You don't have to.

That was kind of a design choice because as the garment wears and washes I'm okay with a little bit of fraying on the horizontals.

So you only do vertical lines.

For this one.

Yeah.

For this one I only did verticals.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

And then tell me about this little stitch.

- Yeah.

So then after I have all of my decorative done, I go back and I use a hand look, quilt stitch on the machine to create almost what I think looks like a faux hand Sachiko stitch or something.

Yeah.

- So it feels very organic and handmade.

And you could also do a hand embroidery.

- And you could absolutely do some like slow stitching on it.

- Yeah.

And I love that you included this fox with your name.

Thank you.

Yes, that's totally intentional.

Perfect.

- Yeah.

Do you think about placement of things like, obviously on the one you're wearing, you've got that piece with the little.

I wanted to highlight that.

- Right.

- It was like This particular piece of the kimono silk was like the only one in the bag that looked like that.

And I thought that would be a great focal point.

So in that case, you need to get your patterned piece back out and think about how it's going to be centered.

- Exactly.

And that's kind of what this guy too is going to be centered on my yoke.

So it's the little fox that's going to be the centerpiece of it.

- Great okay.

So we're going to go to the machine and talk about the machine stitching now.

Yes.

- Okay.

- Let's go.

Okay.

So I've already chosen this decorative stitch.

It's beautiful.

Yeah, it's really fun.

And it's at the nine millimeter.

So it's going to be nice and wide to cover one of my vertical edges.

So you do need to think about the width of the stitch you're choosing to so that you make sure you get everything really.

- Yeah.

I mean you have to know or you can decide like if you're, you know, steering is good enough, you could do something a little thinner.

Yeah.

Okay.

- It's really up to you.

Well, there's so many great stitches out there.

It's really fun to play.

- It is fun to play.

So you're starting right in the middle.

Are you going to backstitch at all or do you just jump in?

- I just jump right in.

- Okay.

I am lining up that raw edge with the middle of the presser foot, and I'm using that open presser foot so I can see.

And you can set a lot of these stitches so that there are certain length apart too.

And it totally changes the changes the look of the stitch.

And it totally changes it.

Exactly.

I just want to make sure that my other horizontals are getting tucked under that.

- Right.

- Presser foot.

So you have to make sure that exactly the right things on top.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

And then you just kind of go for it.

It adds so much interest too and you could use a totally contrasting like you could have used red on this for example.

A contrasting thread would be so beautiful.

Yeah.

And then just aiming to keep it right down.

Aiming right down the middle.

And I'm going to stop at the end of this.

And tell me, like, do you have a certain weight of thread that you like?

I'm using a 30 weight and I'm actually just using a universal needle.

- Okay.

It seems to work really well.

And 30 weight in the bobbin as well, or a. Little 30 weight in the bobbin.

Yeah, that's the same thread in the bobbin.

And then I'm just gonna.

Finish that last one.

Because you don't want to end right in the little.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So there that one that vertical is sewn down.

Oh.

Looks great.

Okay.

- Yeah.

So let's show another stitch.

Okay.

Let's do that.

So I have some saved in a little folder.

So we'll just go see what I got.

Let's try this one.

Okay.

- That looks fun right.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

So maybe I'll do it I'll do it on right here.

On this little part.

So your main goal is to just get everything tacked down with the stitches.

With the decorative stitches.

- And be creative.

Yeah.

Add more interest.

Hold everything together.

- Yep.

It provides a little bit of stability to the.

It's like you're making your own fabric.

And so on.

A lot of these, you don't worry about stitching every bit of fabric down because you like that.

I like it.

But you could, you know, if you don't like that raw edge look, you could absolutely stitch every single one down.

Yeah, it's nice sometimes when people know that it wasn't made completely by a computer and a machine, that it has that handmade look.

Exactly, exactly.

Okay.

We're going to change to monofilament thread and would be right back.

Okay.

So now we've got the monofilament thread in the machine.

- Yes.

In just the needle I still have my regular 30 weight in the bobbin.

- Okay.

And this is for the special stitch that kind of looks like.

Like hand quilting or like hand stitching.

Yeah.

And I'm using my previous row that I have there as my guide.

So I'm just using the presser foot and that previous as the stitch.

You could always mark it If you wanted to you.

You could mark it with a ruler.

And yeah.

And it shows up so nicely, especially on the dark thread.

Shows up so nicely.

Yeah.

This one goes a little faster.

It goes a Little faster.

Ones that are more intricate.

Yeah.

So this this stitch, what's happening is that the monofilament is showing up a little bit on the top, but it's so fine and so clear that it almost is invisible.

Exactly.

- And then it just looks like a running stitch of of hand embroidery.

Exactly.

Okay, so let's go back to the table.

So once you've gotten all of your stitching done, Yep.

- The next step is.

The next step is to find that pattern piece that we want to cut out.

Yep.

And then you're just going to lay it down.

- Okay.

And cut her out.

And then following the instructions for the pattern Okay.

Great.

Well let's take a look at the stitches.

You did too.

Let's see which one did you do.

So we did.

We did the row of the of the handbook.

Okay.

Right here.

- Yeah.

And then we have this vertical of the decorative.

And we did this fun one too.

Oh that one is cool.

- Which I really love.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Very graphic.

Yeah.

- Nice.

So when you cut this out, if you've made it big enough, you should have.

- Yeah.

You should have enough space.

Hopefully.

- You cut this whole piece out and then you just follow the steps.

And then I'm just following the steps for whatever pattern I'm following.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, tell me a little bit about the one back here.

The kind of chartreuse dress.

- Yeah.

So there's lots of things you can do with this.

So that one happens to be a foundation paper piece, a pattern for the yoke.

And then I did string piecing for the sleeve inserts and the hem flounce.

Oh the hem is great.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Really nice.

And I also wanted to mention on this one I love the way you quilted it.

Thank you so much.

- Yeah.

And it's just straight, you know, straight line quilting.

And I just kind of went for it and used the edge of the presser foot as my guide.

So the stitching adds so much to the - Yes.

- to the patchwork.

Yes.

And I was using that, you know, foundation pattern piece as inspiration.

So the geometric shapes and stuff like that.

Great.

Well, this makes me want to go make some garments.

Yes.

Do, do.

It's so much fun.

I will thank you for teaching me.

Thank you.

We'll be back in just a minute.

Today we're going to be learning about how to use quilt blocks to make garments.

And I'm here with Sandra Lee Chandler.

You're a fiber artist and educator.

And tell me about how I can make a cool garment like this.

So first what you're going to do is you're going to start with your quilt blocks.

I love to use orphan quilt blocks.

So I have a couple examples of some orphan quilt blocks.

Because you make a lot of quilts with denim.

So you've got a lot of stuff left over.

- Absolutely.

So what I start with is all my quilt blocks.

I sew them together.

I call it making fabric.

Because you've got to get a big piece of fabric so that you can make your pattern pieces.

- Absolutel So once you have your big piece of fabric or quilt blocks, there's a couple of things you can do.

You can actually look at the pattern and see how you want to lay them out.

For instance, with this top I wanted to lay them out horizontal, right.

So I laid it out.

You also want to look at the silhouette.

This top only has darts coming up from the waistband.

So the basic pieces with just a few darts.

Absolutely.

So if you have if it's real fussy and there's lots of seams in there, it's going to mess up your blocks.

Absolutely.

- Okay.

So you want something that's pretty plain and pretty basic but that still has tailoring.

So what we call in the fashion industry is eased out darts.

They've eased the darts out but it's still tailored.

- Okay.

So that's what I did with this top.

If you notice let's flip it over in the back the same thing.

They run horizontal and vertical.

I added hand stitching after I had already sewn the zipper in.

Love that.

Nice detail.

- Absolutely.

Let's talk about the inside.

- Okay.

Sometimes you let it go.

In this instance, - It's soft.

It wouldn't bother you.

Exactly.

- Yeah.

So this instance, I did nothing to the seams.

Nothing.

And I've worn this at least 100 Times.

- And washed it.

And just a little bit fuzzier inside.

Absolutely.

- Okay.

So what if you wanted to just use some chambray, maybe some denim, and you wanted to do fussy cutting, or maybe you just wanted to not have a pattern?

What I did with this one is I took and I made quilt blocks that here's a pinwheel pattern you can see.

Right here.

Looks like a part of a pinwheel pattern.

Also this again, but I cut them up in a way that you actually made them where they're disjointed.

Right.

- Right.

So it looks very improvizational pieced.

Again, one piece of fabric.

After I cut it up, one piece of fabric, I laid my pattern pieces on there.

This is a shift dress.

And what that means is there's a seam down the center side seam and a dart.

That's it.

- Nice.

So even a beginner garment.

So or could do something like this.

Absolutely.

- Great.

- Absolutely.

So let's flip this one over, Oh fun.

- See the back and notice I love this.

So you start thinking and looking.

It's almost like you see more things.

The longer you look at this garment.

You see the pockets where they used to be.

You'll see wear marks.

Look at this.

Isn't this beautiful?

Oh.

Nice hole.

Absolutely.

- Yeah.

So that's what you can do.

And in this garment I also did nothing to the seams.

So it's okay if you don't feel like surging or zigzagging.

And I have worn this over a hundred times.

And I'm noticing that you finished all the edges just with the lightweight chambray.

- Yes.

Yeah.

Well, so me, I love, love, love binding.

And so if you notice, I'll do a binding technique on most of the clothing that I make.

Okay.

What about if you had some orphan blocks and you have a little one that you wanted to make something for?

This is a jacket.

It's made from orphan blocks that were nine patches.

So here's the nine patches again.

I made the fabric up, but with this one we have lining.

Oh, it's a nice soft one.

So that it would feel good against your cheeks.

- Right.

So think about in use with this one.

There's a young person and it's a coat.

So I thought let's quilt it.

Let's put a lining because it may be cold outside.

So that's what we did with this one.

Again though we did the technique of the binding.

Okay.

- Yeah.

Well we've talked about garments.

Let's make a purse.

- Okay.

Sounds great.

This is a cool purse.

Absolutely.

So here's a purse.

We did the same technique we took.

We had fabric.

We have denim and fabric.

We put it together.

We sewed it all together.

We took a belt cut off the ends of the belt.

Then we took and made a little hook.

And now we have a purse.

- Great.

This one is also lined.

Nice.

- And it's ready to go.

And all repurposed stuff.

Absolutely.

Can I show you a couple of techniques?

Yes, I want to learn.

Let's go over to the sewing machine.

But before we do, this is going to be a bucket purse.

And here's the bottom.

And what we did was we took those blocks.

Remember those orphan blocks we had.

And I needed them to be a little wider.

So I just added two pieces of denim on each side.

Okay.

- I sewed them together.

And you've got like a stabilizer inside here, a little bit.

Absolutely.

Our purse stabilizer So it has structure.

It can when you fill it up with the stuff you can sit it down.

- Yes.

And it has a little padding.

But what I want to show you is I want to run a couple of stitches to hold these together.

And then I want to show you how we run the side seam.

Okay.

Let's go over to our machine and let's use our walking foot.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Okay, so what I'm going to do is I love stitching just outside of the seam line, because I love giving some extra.

Take that.

Zeal to my piece that I'm working on.

You want to be able to see it?

Absolutely.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take and take my walking foot.

And the walking foot is going to keep the layers from shifting as you sew it.

Absolutely for me, it's a must have.

And we're using the open toe walking foot so I can see where my stitching goes.

So what I'm going to do is I want to line it up, I'm using my presser foot and I use whatever the inside, the outside.

Right now I'm going to use the inside of my pressing foot and I'm going to lower it.

There we go.

And then I'm going to start stitching.

And no need to backstitch because that's going to get caught up in the seam when you sew it into the.

- Absolutely.

And remember we have a denim needle in here.

So it can go through all those layers.

- Yes.

And you use a heavier thread or do you.

I actually don't use a heavier thread in less.

I want to have an accent, say I'm sewing a pocket on or.

You just want it to really show up.

- Exact.

Exactly.

I'll use a heavier stitch, so I'm already at the end.

Again, I don't need a backstitch because we're going to go over it.

I'm going to cut.

It's going to lift up.

So you could quilt that as much as you wanted so that it looked the way you wanted it to.

- Looks great.

Okay.

So now that we have this, I'm going to have have you hold that for us.

- Okay.

Now what we're doing is we're going to stitch the side seams.

Now remember, this is a little heavier because we have our stabilizer.

All right.

- And all those layer And all the and all the layers and all the seams.

So get it lined up there.

I'm going to get it lined up.

And I'm going to do a half inch seam.

Just because it's all those layers.

- Yes.

It's harder to tell exactly where you are.

Yes, now I am going to do a backstitch here because I'm going to be tugging on it to get the bottom in there.

So I want to make sure.

So look at this walking foot.

Look how it just literally it's butter.

Yeah.

And keeps things from moving around too much.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

You notice I didn't pin it because you don't need to when you're using a walking foot.

- Right.

I'm just making sure it all goes under there.

I'm going to stop just for a minute.

Because you're too close to the edge there.

Yes.

- Yeah.

And so I'm going to lift and reposition.

And I'm just going to go back just to make sure there's no get gaps.

Yeah.

Got all those layers.

But it's.

All those layers.

And I'm coming to the end.

Backstitch again?

- I'm going to back stitch again and I'm going to cut.

It's going to raise.

And you know what at this point let's just flip it open so we can see what our work looks like.

The next step for all those layers are actually sewn in together.

- Yes.

And the next step would be putting the bottom in.

Oh.

So fun.

Does that look nice?

Look there.

There's our seam.

Nice.

Okay.

All right.

And then you just put the bottom in.

- All right.

Sounds good.

Let's go back to the table.

Absolutely.

All right.

So then the base gets sewn in here.

- Yes.

So we saw the base in.

And then I would actually start constructing my lining.

Oh nice.

Well let's look again at the finished piece.

Here's one of our bags.

We also have a finished piece that's on one of our mannequins.

And I'm ready to finish piece.

Oh, yes.

Your skirt is fabulous.

- Thank you.

And tell us about the one that's on the mannequin back here.

So the one on the mannequin is actually a quilt block.

But the way I place the white, you don't see the complete quilt block, but it is a quilt block.

It's a large quilt block, probably about a 45 inch quilt block spinning wheel pattern.

Okay, but it's almost invisible because it's all the same color.

- Right.

Yeah.

And so it's very modern in the esthetics, but I use solids and print.

And the lines in the block, especially the circle on the side, is such a nice curved movement on there instead of all the straight lines.

- Right.

And it's not quilted.

So it's a fabric.

And I did line it in a fabric.

So if you're in a place like let's say a state like Florida that you're like, well, I'm never going to wear a coat.

Yeah, but you could wear something like this because it isn't quilted and it's not lined with batting.

Not super heavy to wear - Correct.

- in warmer climate.

Exactly.

- Yeah.

So let's talk about your skirt just a little bit.

You've got a flounce at the bottom, and then a lot of the fitted part up there at the top.

Yes.

- Yeah.

So what came how this all came about was I love my flying geese.

I knew that I wanted something that was going to be form fitting.

So the silhouette is a mermaid, and I wanted my flying geese to be from one side to the other so that it would give a smoother, flatter, more appealing look.

Now, at the bottom, what I did was it's a circular skirt.

So instead of competing with the top, I didn't want the same flying geese in the same size.

So I used denim, which was sourced from the manufacturer, and I just put a strip of flying geese so that they had some relationship.

Yeah, well it's wonderful and it's a great way to show people that you are a quilter and that you make garments and show it off a little bit when you go out in public.

- Absolutely.

Thank you for teaching me about this.

I really enjoyed it.

Thank you.

We'll be back in just a minute.

From applied Design theory to innovative technique.

Learn what fellow artists are up to within the art quilting community.

Join us for finishing touches.

Hey, Macia.

- Hi.

Tell me about.

These beautiful quilts.

Oh, yeah.

I just love both of these.

They both embrace sort of a vintage now esthetic.

And the reason I think that they are great partners is that they both are talking about daily life.

Yeah, right.

This first one started with.

It looks like a very an old quilt block maybe from the 30s and 40s.

Yeah.

A lot of these might be feed sacks.

- Yeah.

and they definitely are vintage prints to that era.

Absolutely.

Look at this little bit of lace under here, too.

Like, it's almost like the the little bit of juiciness on the outside of the fried egg.

How clever is that?

Yeah.

- Yeah.

And look at the salt and pepper.

Nice choice of fabrics.

- Yes, absolutely.

So should we look at this one?

- Yeah.

This one also embraces the vintage now concept in a completely different way.

And starting with the way this artist used the this handkerchief.

Right?

I love handkerchiefs, and I was so touched by how this artist creates in very simple lines.

And not a lot of color.

Created a front porch for us.

- Nice.

- Yeah.

And this pot of geraniums, I think it is or something.

And I love that.

It's fairly clean.

And then this pops out at us.

And then the beautiful embellishments too.

Yeah.

- Little touches and the gorgeous.

This this adds so much interest to me.

The lace are tattered edge of the handkerchief.

Yes is great.

And also the way the red bits here pull in with here.

They do.

They play off of that.

They're great.

Thank you.

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