Quilt ? - fabric types...

[paintponylvr]

I understand that most quilts are done in cottons or maybe (?) cotton blends.

But I want to know what I should pair up with the older style BDU fabrics. I kept mine and my hubby's army uniforms. I used a lot of them when a friend and I were making quilts and little quilt wall hangings in the early to mid-90s. It had a good bit of cotton, but was much heavier than a lot of the cotton fabrics I've recently looked at.

But I have a bunch again (wish I had the desert camo, but...). These are not the type material available in regular material stores (boy was I recently surprised by the number of patterns and colors in "camo" when I went into a very large fabric store with my daughter - finding material for her final in a sewing class at Meredith College), but the actual uniforms that I have then taken apart. I have some different weights of material - I will have to go thru and see if there is anything listing what the actual fabric content is.

I want to eventually get back to quilting using these. Some will be donated back to Wounded Warriors, some may be sold or raffled off (if I get that far). I want one or several for myself.

At one point, I had quite a number of different types of quilt blocks that I'd worked with and then sewn, keeping the patterns and how I wanted them laid out. BUT they were part of what disappeared when our storage unit was broken into. Can't begin to tell you how many quilting and sewing books went along with a couple of sewing machines and my only serger. Would love more ideas just "2 color" designs - colors to offset the camo (most army uniforms are od green, tan & black in older uniforms, lighter greens and tans for the newer ones). Love re-using the older uniforms that are no longer in use or worn.

I made seat covers for my car years ago (not quilted, just large sections sewn together) - using the large cargo pockets from the jacket and pants for storage areas on the bottom of the seat covers at the floor. I stuck toys, wipes, bum cream and diapers/pull ups in those pockets for easy reach while traveling cross country with my 2 daughters (pregnant w/ 3rd). Was wonderful! Used button hole techniques to make slots for the seat belts and then could remove the car seats and shake out the cover, then putting car seats back in. Soooo easy to take care of and kept "baby debris" off the seats so that I was able to resell the car later.

The newest uniforms for all the services are sooo much lighter than when my hubby and I were active duty! While I wasn't infantry, I did a lot of outdoor "soldier stuff" over the 5 years I was active but still had 2 of my first uniforms last thru the whole 5 years I was active. They sure don't last nearly as long now and they are expensive! Hmmm, maybe that IS the material available to the public at the fabric stores.

Has anyone else ever done this? I know that quite a few of the current mini horse owners have either done service or had family members in the service. Except for the ones that my girlfriend and I did in the mid 90s, I've never seen any quilts made from BDU fabrics in any design.

 

[chandab]

Ok, I haven't a clue... What is BDU? Knowing that will help answer your question about what kinds of fabric will go with it.

You can choose anything you want to quilt with. I know people who quilt the "traditional" way and use old clothes, and such, rather than buying new fabric off the bolt. The finished product seems to hold up better if all the fabrics are of similar weight (well at least if all the fabrics in the top are the same, the backing can be different from the top).

My preference is the "new" quilting cottons; but recently used a twill for a backing (similar to denim, but a little lighter weight). I have an acquaintance that mostly does denim quilts from old jeans (she'll use new denim if she gets a deal, but mostly cuts up old jeans).

 

[lucky seven]

Never heard of BDU either, what is it?

 

[Charley]

Here is a link to a definition of BDU fabrics. There a a few listings for BDU fabric on eBay, all of it is camouflage in color.

I would suggest that you visit a large fabric store and look at the different fabrics to see what could match in weight. Also prewashing the material should help a great deal in preshrinking the new fabric.

I used the Realtree camouflage fabric on the back of a recent quilt. It was soft but is was a thicker material. They do make a silkier fabric that might be closer to what you are looking for.

If you do an internet sew for "BDU fabric by the yard" there are internet sites that sell this material. Again, most that I saw was camouflage but there was some matching solid colors on some of the sites.

Hope you find what you are looking for. Please share your project when done. We would love to see your quilts!

Lois

 

[paintponylvr]

BDU is Battle Dress Uniform (the complete "outfit"). It was part of our active duty uniforms from 1986 thru 1995. Before 1986, my hubby wore a different one (solid green, not sure what it was called w/o going and looking it up. Went all the way back to the Vietnam war...)

There have been several changes to the name of the finished uniform, the type of material and the weights of those materials plus the finishes since the late 90s. The current, main army uniform is lighter in weight, much less dense/thick and much, much lighter in color - I believe they call the "pattern" a digitized one. There is very little black in the current uniform as well - while the ones I wore from April 1986 thru June 1992 had quite a bit of black in it in large "splotches". The various services have similar uniforms - but all slightly different in color pattern as well as styling.

SOOOO - the best way would be to take a sample of the different types I currently have (at least 3) to match other materials to? I can do that - wanna' laff? I'd never even really thought about doing it that way,

OK, I admit, sometimes a little dense!

Wow, that was a surprise. I also hadn't thought to go out to check out what was online... I don't remember having that many "choices" when I was active duty and I think that some of the colors that are listed now are for either private wear or for special operations (the white camo would simply be for work in the snow - and yes when Larry was stationed in Alaska, he was issued his "white camo's". When the exercise was completed, they turned them back in - they wore the same type/issue uniforms that I did when I joined the Army in 1986 for "regular" activities.) Also, some of the uniforms - fabric colors/styles are for use in other services - not Army.

They brought on a new type of uniform before I left active duty (I left active duty in June 1990 and active reserve duty in 1992. I spent my first full duty year in 1987 in Korea and the balance of my duty in 3 different stations in Germany before/during the time the Berlin Wall came down. Larry and I married while stationed in Germany in 1988 and returned to the states in November 1992 and he remained active duty stationed at Ft Bragg, NC thru 1995.) - called "summer weight" - lighter greens/tans w/ smaller patterns. Not only were they lighter in color - but they were a much lighter weight fabric and didn't last or hold up nearly as long! I didn't work in the field much (I worked on electronic equipment housed in the bottom of the Air Traffic Control Towers, at the time only on permanent army bases - LOVED my job!).... Yet, in the last year that I was fully active duty - I had to purchase my own uniforms several times to keep them up to date and looking "good"... I never went to the "sand box" when I was active - so never wore the Desert Tan types worn during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Before she retired 3 years ago, a friend of mine said she was replacing several uniforms every 3 months as they just don't hold up any more like they used to. She worked at HQ level on FT Bragg - those 3 months didn't include field time or going to the "sand box" (she wore both the current "green" army uniform and also one of the desert tan forms when in Saudi or Afghanistan)... The current ACUs have an "active shelf life" of 6 months but most soldiers find they have to be replaced more often than that - even if they keep one uniform for special occasions only.

Part of the reason my original post said I didn't know the type of material they actually are (the ones that I have) - none of the original tags w/ style or color or fabric types are legible... and sorry, most of our pictures of ourselves and our early family (before 1995) are gone. Either lost when in a storage shed in our back yard that was shredded during a storm in 1999 just south of Fayetteville, NC or lost when our 2 public storage units in Fayetteville were broken into and cleaned out in 2001 while we were sorting "stuff" and moving... We have very few pics of either my or Larry's childhood or our early marriage (including our wedding which took place overseas w/o family) and the girls before 1995. Some of the ones now on our website or in our public, online photo albums are ones friends and family members were able to send "back" to us... I'm hoping to get more from my mom eventually to scan into our computers. Also, in those times, public photos of uniforms or active duty members were discouraged and no-one that I knew took many pictures (no easy way - developing 35 mm film got expensive!!). I nearly died of shock recently to find out that soldiers carry their personal cell phones with them and can answer them while carrying out their duties! In fact, another pony person gave me her son's number since he was on an exercise here in NC and he answered while they were doing drills out in the field. I could not believe it! All I could think of was ..."....OMG, can you paint yourself as any larger a TARGET???...."

 

[REO]

We still have lots of BDUs! They are the green ones. Hubby entered the Army in 1979 and was in through Destert Storm, so he has some of the sand color BDUs too

Good luck with your projects!