The Footsie Block - a Mini-Tutorial

I love baby clothes, and doubly love a memory quilt made with them. 

Baby clothes quilts are my favourite to make, and my favourite blocks are the ones made from footsie pajamas. 

Cute little things, aren't they? And so easy to sew!  

This is how I make my footsie blocks (please be kind and try not to cringe over my crispy-crittered ironing board cover):

Cut off the footsies.

    

      Leave atleast 1-1/2" of leg/ankle on. 

Prep your block.

Get the base block ready. Square it up now because its impossible to do once the footsies are on.

Press the Footsie

Use steam and the cotton/linen setting. You're going for a really nice crease around the foot part. 

Cut Out the Bottom

(before)

(after)

Flip the footsie over. Cut away the bottom, leaving approximately 1/2 inch from the edge.

Shape it up

Give the footsie a nice shape by pulling the top corners of the bottom into the centre as shown. PRESS again on both sides.

Fold the Top

Fold down that big piece of ankle/leg that you left on. Where you fold is up to you, choose a length that looks best. 

PRESS again on both sides (do you see the pattern here?)




Trim the Top

Trim off the excess, again leaving around 1/2" from the edge. 

PRESS again. Make sure all raw edges are hidden.







Pin to Block

Pin the applique footsie to your base block. Take care not to distort either whilst pinning.








Sew it On

Sew the footsie using your choice of stitch. Aim for 1/4" from the edge of the applique piece. 

Back-stitch at the sharp corners. 

I prefer to use my zipper foot for this step.








Oogle Your Creation

Isn't it just adorable?

I sure would love to see YOUR footsie block!

T-shirt Quilt Tips

Here are a few things I've found helpful while constructing t-shirt quilts. As I think of them, I'll update this!

Get it Stabilized

Most clothes used in t-shirt quilts are made from jersey and jersey stretches. In order to neatly sew the shirt pieces to the sashing pieces, you'll need to stabilize the clothes first. 

Any non-woven, fusible interfacing will do; however to keep the clothes and seams soft, my stabilizer of choice is Pellon Fusible 80% polyester / 20% nylon non-woven. 

Cut the interfacing slightly larger than needed and fuse to the fabric according to manufacturer directions. Cut fused piece as needed and iron again on both sides.

Pick a Sharp

Needle choice is a personal preference. Normally when sewing with knits a ball-point or knit needle is used to avoid holes developing when the seam is stretched. My experience with the stabilized knits is that a quilting or universal needle works the best. Ball-point needles can cause puckers while sewing in woven fabric. Because the knit is sewn to a non-stretch woven fabric (and even when just sewn to another piece of stabilized knit) the seams simply don't stretch enough to cause the holes created by the needle to grow larger than the thread.

Keep it in Order

Even stabilized knits will stretch slightly; to combat this, make sure the woven fabric is on the bottom of the stack while sewing. Most of the stretching is done by the sewing machine's feed dogs. Keeping the woven fabric against the feed dogs and the knit against the presser foot will help the seams retain their shape.

Press it Away

Whenever possible, press the knit fabric toward the woven. This is more of a personal preference, I suppose. Chances are, however, that the knits will have varying weights, so the blocks will look neater if the woven fabric frames the knit.

Roller Derby Love a.k.a. The Get Up Kwilt

Done and done! Roller Derby Love has been bound and washed. I always fear and love washing a quilt for the first time. You never really know how much the change will be. It's always going to be small, certainly, but just how will that 3% shrinkage affect the overall character?

In this quilt, I love it. The small amount of puckering really compliments the lived-in tshirts. A brand-new looking fresh-off-the-shelf quilt just would have looked wrong. Have you noticed yet that I love my hyphens? I also love semi-colons; however, they require more though on placement and I usually blog too quickly to use them.


I ended up using the flannel backing for binding and think it's just perfect.