Hi Quilty Friends. Just when I thought I had reached the end of the fabric sorting, folding and storing, I found these. How did I not see the big bag of blue jeans and shirts? Oh, I saw it but I thought it was one of my half quilted quilts. As soon as I tried to pick it up and it weighed a ton I knew there was more fabric sorting to be done. This sent me down a rabbit hole of checking every box and bag for fabric. Thankfully this is the last of the fabric to sort and store.
Most of the jeans and a few shirts have already been deboned. Deboning is the process of cutting away the seams and buttons. I could leave them as is and deal with them when I'm ready to make the quilt but they will take up less storage space if I debone them. It only took a couple hours to get them deboned.
I could have stopped there. Did I do that? No, this morning I had the bright idea to go ahead and cut them into squares. This will reduce the space needed for storage even more.
Since denim dulls a rotary cutter faster than paper or batting I decided to use the Sizzix die cutter. It may also speed up the cutting process once I get a good assembly line routine going.
The Sizzix can typically cut 8 layers of quilting cotton at a time, but I don't think it can handle 8 layers of denim. So, I started out with 4 layers.
Maybe 3 layers might work better. A few threads in the corner need to be clipped. Maybe running it through twice would help? Who knows, I've only used this contraption a couple of times. I might be doing something wrong.
From the scraps I'll cut 3.5" squares because I can't toss out good denim. The smaller die cut through the 4 layers of denim like butter. Yep, I must have done something wrong with the bigger die. Of course it could be a faulty die. These Sizzix dies with straight edges need to be a little crooked when you run them through. Was it not crooked enough or too crooked? Hopefully I can figure it out and zip through these by noon today. Wish me luck!
Until next time...
I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!
Excellent job on the sorting and organizing. I love organization and my sewing space needs it. Do you do house calls? lol
ReplyDelete"Deboning" is such an interesting and descriptive term for it. I have a few pairs of worn out, outgrown jeans in a mending bucket that I've kept specifically for use as patches for other jeans. Had not thought of it but yes, "deboning" those pairs would definitely save space as well as making the old denim available for immediate use when I need a patch. Great idea!
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