Sweatshirt plus quilt blocks

Ever since last year I’ve wanted to put a quilt block or at least fabric appliques on the front of a sweatshirt.

Why?

Well, here in Poland, it seems that most sweatshirts for sale are solids. It seems to take about 3 wearings for me to get something on front of the sweatshirt - a stain that ruins teh look of that brand new look.

I have probably 3 or 4 lighter colored sweatshirts - including some of my favorites that I have put aside to make a block of some kind and put it on the front.

Imagine my surprise about a month ago now when I found this over on Stephanie Slewinski’s site?

Yes, it was this very pretty sweatshirt block idea.

I don’t have this line of fabric, so I made up the pattern but with my stash fabrics BUT also added some 9 patches and other hourglass blocks using the same fabrics and put them on various places plus the sleeves and even the back.

I managed to find a creamy off white sweatshirt here in Poland. Not an easy task, BTW. They love the dark colors here.

I also did mine a bit differently. In her pattern, she asks us to turn under the edge and just stitch it down. Well, that wasn’t going to go so well for me, so I went back to the interfacing backing method. I chose some lightweight interfacing, and I basically lined my blocks. That way I could topstitch it down on the sweatshirt without the big deal of any edges popping out of the seams.

I first went to my browns and picked out fabrics. I used a beautiful Civil War red as well. Here is what I chose.

And here is how I put the interfacing on the quilt blocks. I sewed around the blocks completely using 1/4” and then cut slits in the back and turned the block inside out. This basically “faces” the blocks. I did trim the corners off, as well.

Then I pressed the blocks and I went and pinned on the middle main block.

The picture shown below is before I pressed it well. I had just turned it but at this point it wasn’t ready for attaching to the sweatshirt.

 
 

I was pleased with the close color of the background fabric and the sweatshirt. I was trying to for a very close match, so I’m okay with that.

Then I added some more of the smaller blocks I had made in various places.

I’ve actually not tried this sweatshirt on—it is supposed to be oversized. I’ve not seen one with such short “long sleeves”. I did have these three blocks and didn’t know where to put them so I added them to the back. I will say I have at least 7 more of the little 9 patches that I didn’t finish up. I may save them for when I stain this for putting on those spots! :)

You can tell I have confidence that I will stain it!

 

I do have one more sweatshirt that I bought to do this specifically. But I’ve not begun to cut out the pieces yet. Hopefully I can do that one quickly as I want to have it done during the fall season. We are supposed to have some cooler weather starting in a few days.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Oh, and the other sweatshirts I have that I want to cover up some stains - a hot pink one, specifically. I think I also have a lighter green one.

Becky PetersenComment