Home Made Originals: Old Family Quilt Repurposed

I've been working on this for a while. Like many of my projects, deciding what I wanted to do and developing a plan took longer than the execution. I was given an old family quilt in January. And it has a story. My sister and I were both given quilts from our grandmother when we left Canada (at age 6 for me). Mine was a red print and hers was a blue paisley like design, both made with solid pieces of fabric and tied. Little did we know at the time that old family quilts lived under those printed fabric covers. By the time I acquired the remains of my sister's quilt (and that was how why I would describe it) all the blue fabric covering the original quilt was gone. There were holes and tears and worn spots. It was really beyond repair.

I wanted to do something to preserve the memory, if not the substance, of the quilt and explored various options. I decided to use some of the "best" parts that remained and make mementos for family members and something for myself. The mementos will be shared here once I gift them to their recipients. The vest is what I made for myself.

I used this free pattern from Purl Soho: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2014/02/20/corinnes-thread-quilted-vest/. First I washed the quilt by hand add Oxi clean to try and remove the yellowness. It worked remarkably well but unfortunately it also took some of the original color (green and brown blocks became very faded). Then, It took a considerable effort to cut this out using the best parts of the quilt. I still had to take apart other sections and add new squares back to my vest where the fabric was the most worn, faded, or totally disintegrated.

I added the pockets (every vest NEEDS pockets, don't you think?) and handstitching to give a little more interest. For some reason after that, my vest went into UFO pile or timeout for many months. This week, I resurrected the project, made and added the binding, including binding the inside seams). Then I used my embroidery machine and a Mini Quilt Design from Designs by JuJu to make the little pin. I'm undecided about the placement of the pin, it may go up higher on one side. But I'm very pleased that I was able to make something I will actually wear from this old family treasure.