Totoro Quilt Tutorial

My oldest son is a HUGE, and I mean HUGE Totoro fan.

He asked me ages ago to make him a Totoro quilt.  I looked around the internet and couldn't find anything I really liked.  Making something with a kitsch character for a teen is hard.  So many of the things I found were cutesy vs kitsch.

My friend and I went to West Elm the other day for our spring visit.  I'm not a huge fan of their furniture but I do quite like their linens.  I only had to take one look at this wide rugby stripe duvet to know I had a jumping off point for the Totoro quilt.  I don't think anyone would argue that rugby stripes are manly.

A quick google after I got home found me some images of Totoro and a plan to print some fabric.  I discovered that a regular old ink jet printer can print on fabric.  All you need to do is press the fabric on some freezer paper.

Cut it into 8 1/2 by 11" sheets.

And print!

I sprayed the prints with spray matte medium to seal in the ink and gave them a rise in the sink.  

They faded a bit but nowhere near as much as I would have thought! The fabric is soft and flexible.

I used two Ikea sheets, one grey one white, cut into 11" strips.

 I sewed them together in alternating stripes and fitted in Totoro and the dust mites.

My son is 17 and all about subtle.  He was thrilled with this!  I knew he wouldn't want something that screamed kid quilt.  Subtle and animation usually don't go hand in hand but I think this fits the bill quite nicely.

FOLLOW UP:

I made this a couple of years ago.  Alas, the printing method wasn't all that great.  It faded.  The quilt is still lovely but the Tororo is not what he once was.  When I can get my hands on it for a little bit, I'm going to use some embroidery floss and stitch in the Totoro.