Real Scrap Quilts: Japanese Crazy Patchwork

by Celia Eddy
published: 19/01/2001
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When I say ‘scraps’ that's exactly what I mean. I don't mean buying lots of fat quarters and cutting them up. No! What I mean is using bits and pieces of fabric leftover from other projects or purchased as remnants. And I'm not just talking about cotton fabrics, either. I use anything that comes to hand which happens to be the right colour and texture for the item I’m working on. For example, I love making clothes, particularly dressing gowns. Lots of patchwork clothing is the sort of thing that I would definitely not be seen wearing in the street - too bright, too showy for my subdued English taste? But in the privacy of one's own home – well, anything goes! Everyone in my family has one of these dressing gown extravaganzas, containing scraps of silk, satin, velvet, cotton, upholstery fabrics – whatever comes to hand and fits the colour-scheme. They’re well-padded so very cosy, and they last for years.

Quilts and Garments from Japanese 16th Century Patchwork

Eddy "Dressing Gown"

This is my own dressing gown, which I made about four years ago. It contains a whole rag-bag of fabrics and the only thing I bought for it was lining. Despite the mixture of fabrics, I still wash it in a low temperature wash, give it a short spin, dry and then iron gently.

So far, it comes up as good as new. To make one similar, you need a garment pattern of the simplest possible construction, avoiding set-in sleeves and complicated shapes.

The method of patchwork I’ve used is based on 16th Century Japanese Crazy patchwork, a technique I use a lot and which is ideal for using up scraps. Of course, you can use the patchwork for quilts or whatever you like, as well as for garments.

Diagram 1

How to Make 16th Century Japanese Patchwork

This is a quick and easy strip-piecing method of making patchwork using squares, rectangles, trapeziums and rhomboids. Don’t be put off by the words there’s NO maths involved!

The following instructions are for building up your patchwork fabric (‘yardage’) in five-inch strips but it’s easy to make the strips wider or narrower.

1. First, gather a pile of scrap fabrics of colours which will either match or compliment your basic colour scheme. (I usually include plenty of black for visual emphasis.) Choose fabrics of varying types and textures: cotton, satin, velvet, brocade – whatever comes to hand.

2. Iron all your scraps and us a rotary cutter to cut them into 7-inch strips. Lay two strips over each other with BOTH sides RIGHT side up. (Diag.1)

3. Cut diagonally. (Diag.2)

4. Join the strips along the cut ends by placing them right sides together and stitching. (Diag. 3) Joined strips are shown in Diag.4. Press seams open

5. Do the same with lots of other strips, cutting at different angles to create various mathematical shapes and joining them in the same way along the cut edges. Keep joining the strips like this until they’re long enough for your garment pattern or quilt. Diag. 5 shows examples of pieced strips.

7. Now lay the strips on your cutting board and use the rotary cutter to neaten the edges so that each strip is 6 inches wide. Join the pieced strips side by side with half-inch seams until you’ve built up the yardage to the width required. Press seams open.

That’s it! Use your patchwork as you please.

To Make Patchwork Garments

When using this patchwork for garments, I lay out each section of the pattern and simply join pieced strips until the patchwork covers the pattern with a generous overlay – at least one and a half inches all round. Then cut out the pattern-piece, still leaving a good inch all round to allow for shrinkage during quilting.

Next cut out the lining and wadding, also with generous allowance all round. Lay the patchwork over them and tack firmly all over. Now quilt the patchwork. You can either hand-quilt or, as I most often do, quilt in the ditch using monofilament (invisible) thread.

Lay your garment pattern on the patchwork and cut exactly.

When you’ve got all your garment sections to this stage, join them in the usual way. Bind the seams to cover the raw edges. You can add a lining or not, as you please.

Find out more about Japanese Patchwork in the following books:
Liddell and Watanabe: Japanese Quilts (Studio Vista, 1990, London) (Look on page 6 for an illustration of a wonderful coat made around 1560 using the method described above.)
Maggie Lane Oriental Patchwork (Charles Scribeners, NY. 1978)

© Celia Eddy