So here are the spoils from the 11 pairs of pants and 1 jumper that I cut up in the last week. I only cut up two legs out of four for all of the pants, and I cut up the whole red jumper. There is a sample block laid out in the bottom right corner. I will need 20 of these blocks for the whole quilt. The red is really more of a dark burgundy. I am getting tired of fighting with my camera… The large 6.5″ squares are for the backing, and yes, I still have 46 more to cut out.
I have to say, cutting out corduroy is a huge pain. You have to sit there and cut out each square one at a time and make sure it is exactly on the grain. I hope it all still looks straight when it is sewn together.
So, it looks like on an average pair of pants, you can get 20 to 30 squares (3.5″) per leg half, or 80-120 squares total for the whole pair of pants. You can get 5 to 6 squares (6.5″) per leg half, or 20-24 squares total, with scraps leftover to make smaller strips. You can also get about 50 rectangles (2″x3.5″) per leg half, or about 200 total.
So, to make this lap quilt, I needed 7 pair of pants minimum, but am using 12 for color variety. This means that a lap quilt about 48″ x 60″ made of these pants would cost less than $15 to make–this includes front and back fabric, but not batting. My next one I am going to make all greens and browns–it is going to be so pretty!
