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This past week started out much calmer, so I picked up a UFO of mine. For those not in the crafting world, that’s an unfinished object or project.

Last summer, I volunteered to make my grandsons new quilts. I was thinking fleece quilts that require little sewing, but over the course of negotiations, their dad (my son) asked if I’d make the boys matching duvets. Either Star Wars or Harry Potter please. At first thought, it seemed to be an easy project. What’s a duvet other than two pieces of fabric sewn together. How hard could it be? That should have been my first clue.

Nothing is ever as easy as it seems. The duvets had to be 64 x 86 inches. Cotton fabrics only come 44-inches wide. That meant I had to sew two pieces of fabric together and trim them to size. After using my math skills which I hoped were reliable (I used my calculator to check my calculations), I needed at least 20 yards of fabric to make these things. You know how much fabric is these days? It ranges between $12.99 and $18.99 per yard.

I told Hubby I didn’t think I could afford it, but he reminded me that his mother and grandmothers didn’t let cost come between them and their grandchildren. The guilt trip worked, and I went shopping for fabric. By luck and coupons, I found both licensed print fabrics on sale. I could only get ten yards at a time, but I couldn’t get the whole ten yards as one piece for either fabric design. I didn’t know this until after I ordered it. If I had it to do again, I’d order two 5-1/2-yard pieces of fabric which would save me a lot of headaches. Oh well, too soon old, too late smart.

I won’t go into the details but cutting fabric into five-yard lengths is hard without a five-yard-long table. I managed to do it, only when I got to the last piece, it was short. Somewhere in the washing (shrinkage) and cutting, I lost inches. Fine, I’d piece an extension with what I trimmed off the sides. Good plan, except it was directional fabric (the designs were one-way). I had to piece together the extension. If only I had ordered 5-1/2-yard pieces!

Long story short, I’ve sewed, ripped, measured, and struggled sewing the two five-yard pieces of fabric together. My precision cutting technique (as described in Scraps of Wisdom) have gone out the window for this project so I will do some trimming of pieces after they’re sewn together. There will be no huge zipper on the end of each one, just small magnets to hold the end shut. Right or wrong, that’s how I’m going to do it.

The duvets are still not done. I can only work on them in small blocks of time without pulling my hair out. In the end, I hope my grandsons will like their Star-Wars-on-one-side-and-Harry-Potter-on-the-other duvets. If they don’t, I hope they’ll donate the yards of fabric to the Linus Project. A lot of kids’ quilts can be made out of that much fabric.

I’ll not volunteer to make any more duvets. I’ll stick with the much smaller, more manageable quilt pieces that are precisely cut and sewn together. It’s how I like to sew. Plus, my blood pressure should go down as well.

4 Responses

  1. This is wide open to say things like,
    What you should of done, what you could of done, why didn’t you, we’ll I would of, Idid it this way.
    Over the years I have done some sewing, worked as a photographer, done some gardening, and a lot of woodwork. While often perfection is not to my pleasing, it is always quite functional and enjoyed by others.

    What I’m best at with 48 years of doing, is electrical work. And still I find at times I make small errors.

    My point is this. Enjoy that you have done something. Done something for others. It was made with love. Only explain oddity’s if asked and enjoy the smiles.

    Lastly your photo reveals that you need more light. Better light will always help.

  2. I made 2 bedspreads for my son’s bunk beds years ago. So that size they were a bit smaller. They weren’t exactly Star Wars but something similar.

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