I distinctly remember walking into Anthropologie last summer and swooning over their soft, romantic, jersey Rosette Quilt. Then I saw the price, and my swooning came to an abrupt halt…
I sat and studied it for a bit with the thought that I could probably figure out how to re-create it and left the store with the excitement of a new project at hand. But as I walked through my front door and was taken aback by the other fifty projects of immediate necessity in my newly moved into home, the stunning Rosette quilt quickly flitted from my mind.
Well, to my extreme delight I just happened upon a step-by-step DIY for that exact quilt over at So You Think You're Crafty. (Thank you internets!) And now that I am happily settled into my home, I think it might be the perfect time to snuggle up with this quilt just in time for winter.
• Here is Part 1 of the tutorial to create the individual knotted jersey squares.
• Here is Part 2 of the tutorial to put it all together.
• Purchase the Rosette Quilt from Anthropologie here.
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I really want to do a cost analysis breakdown of how much you'd have to pay yourself per hour to make this in order for it to actually come out cheaper than Anthropologie but it would involve charts and graphs and whatnot.
By my calculation, if I could make this in less than 12.5 hours total, then I would theoretically be saving money by making it myself. However, as cool as it would be to make it myself, I think it'd be a hugenormous PITA. Maybe if you got together with three of your best friends who all wanted one and spent a Saturday sewing squares while watching girly movies and then gave everything to someone's grandma who really liked to quilt.
I would maybe attempt this technique to recreate Anthropologie's pillow shams - only 2 squares! but no way am I ambitious enough to attempt the whole quilt. I applaud the one who did it, though.
It's not quite the same, but I bet this DIY pintucked cover (was this posted on here a while back?) could be modified to look like that!
Check this out: http://www.livingonthechic.com/2010/01/diy-pin-tucked-duvet-cover.html
I bet you could stitch the pintucked duvet to look like it was quilted without actually having to quilt the individual pieces. Much simpler!
FYI Target has a cheap version of this duvet. I bought a queen-size for about $60.
Bed Bath & Beyond has the DKNY version of this in two colors at $129, with matching pillows at $49. I wanted it so bad. But I remembered the people and animals and accidents that happen on my bed, and realized I couldn't actually make the bed with it, without covering it with something else, so what's the point?
Very cool! As someone who makes real quilts (this isn't technically a quilt, since it's not 'quilted' - but I digress...) I don't think this would take nearly as long as everyone thinks. And in the tutorial she said she used white sheets, which you can get for next to nothing.
Even if you've never sewn before, you could probably knock this out in 4 or 5 hours for basically pennies. I can think of worse things to do on a rainy day.
Do what I do while cutting fabric for quilts - sit on the living room floor with your favourite TV series DVD.
And just because you can buy something doesn't necessarily make it better. Making something yourself adds so much meaning and value.