Luckily Portia's brilliant challenge, The Refashioners, forced me to start thinking and sewing again. I took part last year and it was one of the highlights of my year so when Portia asked me to participate again I was very excited.
I had so many ideas to start with (my initial
reaction was to make a dungaree dress, which sadly would not have been
practical for pregnancy so has been shelved for a while!) but I soon settled on
making something I will need soon, and something I know will be used a lot – a
travel changing mat. I had one of these
when my daughter was a baby which was a freebie from a magazine and it didn’t
last but it was so useful for carrying a small changing kit around, and meant
that any bag could become a changing bag.
I started with a pair of jeans which I probably
bought about 8-10 years ago and which were still a lovely dark indigo colour
which was what I was looking for. They
also have some stretch in which isn’t ideal but hasn’t affected the end result.
Before starting, I looked at a tutorial to get a basic idea of construction and also
borrowed a friend’s changing mat to get a rough idea of size. I was obviously constrained by the width of
the leg of the jeans but luckily I managed to cut the mat out whilst avoiding
the leg shaping in these jeans.
Obviously this would have been easier if I had used a pair of men’s,
non-stretch and unshaped jeans but these were sitting unloved in my cupboard!
I cut my jeans up the outside leg seam, leaving
the inner seam intact, and lay the fabric out flat. I then made a quilt
sandwich of denim, batting and soft furry plush fabric before quilting all
three layers together in a diamond pattern, using basting spray and a walking
foot to stop the layers shifting around while quilting. To make the pockets, I cut two rectangular
pieces of denim from the remaining leg and two pieces of flannel fabric half as
wide again as the main pocket pieces. I
gathered the bottom of the flannel to fit on the pocket, and sewed a channel
for elastic along the top. I wanted
bigger, roomier pockets than my last version as I am intending to use cloth
nappies again which take up more space than disposables, but they will also be
useful to put a spare change of clothes in too.
Using a faux leather bias binding I bound the
pockets first before attaching them to the mat then bound the whole way around
the mat. The binding was really quite
tricky to work with so I kept the walking foot on my machine and took it really
slowly. It isn’t perfect but I am happy
with the outcome. The last thing to do
was to stitch the buckle on the front, which has a magnetic closure, and done!
The only thing I had to buy to make this
changing mat was the binding, everything else I had in my cupboard. The plush and flannel were left over from
making new baby gifts, I can’t even remember why I bought the buckle but I am
so pleased it has been put to good use and obviously the jeans were taking up
space and feeling unloved so I am delighted to have turned them into something
which I know will be so useful to me in a few months’ time. Thank you so much Portia for organising such
a brilliant event. I love seeing
everyone’s projects popping up and how other people interpret the theme. Good luck to all taking part in the community challenge - the deadline is 30th September so still plenty of time to enter!
