Now and then I prowl the thrift stores. I say now and then because I used to do it with some regularity. I have long been inspired by the accounts of our “mothers’ from the past, otherwise known as ancestors, who never wasted a single thing and made-over any piece of fabric they could find into something wonderful and useful.
Often, the fabric used in franchise clothing is not found in the fabric stores. It is often very unusual and of good quality so it makes excellent fabric for quilts and other things. All of the fabric in this lap quilt came from “thrifted clothing” with the exception of the back of the little quilt and the binding. Most of the fabric came from two things: a very wide and full skirt and a large smock.
I washed the clothing and cut it apart and sewed it back together in a different way to make the top. It is a combination of hand tied and hand quilted. It is very soft and light.
It was later in life that I began to understand the satisfaction of “making something over” and so the washing, ironing and cutting of used things proved to be very satisfying to my soul in a world of ready-made.
If women of the Great Depression could make beautiful clothing out of flour sacks, and they did, I can certainly learn to make a little, soft, lap quilt out of discarded skirts and blouses. The effort was unusually satisfying.
“Something from something else feels wonderful.”
-Grandma-