Quilters Cotton: Not Just for Quilts!

We all use it on most of our sewing projects, we all love the many options that it offers, for many it's the first thing we have ever sewn with.  I'm talking about Quilting Cotton.  It's so easy to work with and what many of the wonderful PDF patterns are written for.  But just how versatile is this wonderful fabric that we all love?  Here are a few projects that we at BQB have made from various quilting cottons that we carry.

                       

Those are all cute and such, but where's the versatility in those outfits?  Well, Mom did make a matching bag out of cotton for this one:

And she also made me a really cool boho style bag last year, which was mistaken at a high end fabric store for a designer bag (I can't remember the name of the designer).

But what about things that other people have made from quilting cotton?  I've seen countless tutorials for book covers made from cotton and will be making some binder covers with my kids before our school year starts.  We're using the PDF tutorial from Gingercake for them.  I'll be sure to share them when we're done!

There are tons of backpack patterns available that use quilting cotton, too.  And with a little bit of imagination, those backpacks can be made into some really neat creations!  I'm working on something this week that will hopefully turn out to be a pretty awesome backpack creation!

But what if I told you that quilting cottons could be used in elaborate costumes?  Not just Halloween costumes (though it's great for that too), but for really over the top gowns and such.  Have you seen the movie Mirror Mirror about Snow White?  Really good movie, I highly recommend it!  Look at these costumes from one of the scenes in the movie.  Would you believe that they're made from quilting cotton???

I attended a "Costuming on a Budget" panel in 2012 at DragonCon in Atlanta, GA.  One of the speakers of the panel talked about how amazing quilters cotton is for costumes and she talked about how the costume designers for Mirror Mirror used quilters cottons on the costumes for the wedding scene.  They helped create those over the top looks without all the work of adding the details on a blank fabric.  The dress pictured above was fussy-cut so that the large flowers were on the shoulders and also in just the right place on the bodice and skirt of the dress. 

The wonderful woman who was speaking at that panel was wearing a beautiful corset with a steampunk mermaid on the front of it.  Luckily, I was able to find a picture of her in the costume on her blog, since I didn't get a picture at DragonCon.  You can check out her blog, Confessions of a Craft Addict, where she talks about all sorts of crafty goodness!  Here is the picture from her blog of her beautiful costume: 

And guess what.  Her corset is made out of quilters cotton.  Pretty cool!  I'm actually working on a corset right now out of some quilters cotton that I bought a couple years ago.  I can't wait to see it come together!  

There are so many ways that quilters cotton can be used in our sewing!  I really do think that it's one of the most versatile fabrics out there.  Now what are you waiting for?  Get to creating!!!

~Princess Bee