Before we even left on the trip, I was coveting old Hawaiian shirts to cut up for quilt making. Then we found the shops with the vintage inspired shirts and I was lost. How can there be sooooo many gorgeous prints? And why do they insist on selling the best ones in very expensive shirt form?
The brilliant folks at Hilo Hatties sell bundles of 6" squares, but there's not much variety in the ones I bought. I'll add sashing and make something nice, but it won't be the quilt I was dreaming of.
Then we found this shop, Jaqueline On Kauai. The owner makes custom Aloha shirts while you wait and, after claiming that it was a trade secret, told me it takes her about twenty-five minutes to make a shirt. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that could be physically possible if she really means one shirt, start to finish.
Those carpets are covered in gold glitter. Lots and lots and lots of gold glitter. It's tracked out onto the sidewalk. I love the glitter and the pink walls and the vintage sewing machines that fill the place.
She also makes shirts and shorts out of vintage 1950s rice bags. I kind of almost want the clothes...but I really, really would love to get my hands on some of those bags! (A few days later I found a happy substitute, which I'll post about later.)
Ahh, I suspect you follow Wonkyworld, too! Love Hilo Hattie's. Sounds like you're having a great time.
ReplyDeleteHawaiian shirts are what got me started quilting! I bumped into an estate sale of a Hawaiian shirt hoarder in sizes XXXXXL. For the grand total of $40, I processed about 40 shirts, yes averaging about $1 a piece. That is the way to do it, otherwise the material is too expensive.
ReplyDeleteSo I cut my teeth on learning my patchwork piecing beginning with a log cabin block. Unfortunately, the quilt turned out blue, blue and more blue but I added those Hawaiian shirt labels at random places and it's a keeper.
Pop by my blog some time and search for "Hawaiian" and you can see my posts ~
http://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com