meyert

Can someone please help me understand something about fraying? I posted about some homespun fabric that I really liked so I broke down and purchased it. Then I started to worry about the fraying, so I posted the question.

There were alot of helpful replies, but mostly people said they use homespun for rag quilts. Which I understand rag quilts are great - I have made several With this project I wasn't going to make a rag quilt.....

My mind is going in circles...and worrying. I keep thinking that the homespun fabric is for rag quilts. It will fray too much to use for a regular quit. But then I think... if the fraying stops at the sew line on rag quilts wouldn't it stop on the sew line of my regular blocks? I mean the rag quilts don't keep fraying until they copletely fall apart - right?

Am I thinking correctly? the sew line will stop the fray?

I bought the large apple core template from MSQC to use with this fabric.. but I don't want to have a quilt fall apart on me

bearisgray

I would shrink the fabric before cutting it.

Then use a shorter stitch length when sewing the pieces together -

Example: On my Pfaff, instead of a 2.5 setting for stitch length, I would use 2.0

On one that goes by inches, instead of 10-12 stitches per inch, I would shorten the stitch length to 12-14 stitches per inch.

Then make absolutely sure that I had the FULL 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Your reasoning is reasonable.

If you are hand piecing this, just make short stitches. When I handpiece, I backstitch about every inch or so.

NanaCsews2

I have not made a rag quilt, but I did make a basic beginners squares and pinwheels quilt when I first got my serger. I used homespun fabric, and after washing it, I used my pinking shears and cut the seams for my pattern to be half an inch. Then I serged the seams. There was some fraying, but very little. Course I was learning to use the serger and probably should have adjusted the stitch and if I had had Best Press at the time, I would have sprayed the dickens out of it. Frankly, I gave up on the quilt top and went out and started buying LQS fabrics to use on my Babylock Ellegante. I haven't used the homespun fabrics since, but your questions raised a flag telling me I need to investigate this further before I would use them again. Thanks for the questions and putting a bug in my ear.

ManiacQuilter2

Don't worry, If you have done a test block, has it frayed that much? If so, have you thought of cutting the fabric with pinking shears or after you cut it to zig zag the edges??

dunster

I think all the comments to your previous thread, mine included, were meant to help you recognize that homespun does fray more than quilter's cotton, and therefore it needs special care. You can still use it in a non-ragged quilt. You've already received several excellent suggestions.

meyert

thanks guys. Maybe I will buy some pinking shears.. I have't done that before

ckcowl

Prewash-- that will tighten up the weave some. Handle as little as possible and perhaps shorten your stitch length a little bit. I've made a few homespun quilts, they are very nice-- I think one is somewhere here on the board. Homespun quilts used to be quite popular, common

Pennyhal

Sometimes when stitching I get a little crazy and stitch to close to the raw edge. So when I check my seams and I question wether or not the stitching will hold, I simply stitch it again just a thread's width away from the first stitch line on the raw edge side. It makes it unpracticable to iron seams open, if that's what you do. But if I'm worried about a seam coming undone, I always iron to one side.

annievee

I agree with all prior comments--sewing tighter seam is important.

MadQuilter

I have worked with homes-spun fabric and found that they weren't that bad once I prewashed them and starched them. They do not seem to have the same amount of "give" so cutting and sewing precision was a bigger deal. Just jump in and do it.