Scrap Happy

I’ve never worked with fabric for a quilt that wasn’t 100% cotton or from t-shirts. adorabowe was kind enough to post a link to a t-shirt video on another post. Here’s the link for anyone who is interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE3jq...&feature=feedu

My question is about cotton fabric mixed with polyester or 100% polyster fabric. How is that done in a quilt? I have 6 cotton shirts that were my Dad’s and will make a memory quilt from them after I finish the line-up of other projects. But he also had some t-shirts and some polyester blends and if I include the polyester blends and t-shirts I could make a bigger quilt. When working with the polyester blends should I sew it on muslin? If I could use Dad’s other shirts I could make a bigger quilt. Thank you for your help.

Prism99

You could mix the fabrics by stabilizing the t-shirts with nylon tricot fusible. The polyester fabrics would not require stabilizing. Poly frays more easily than cotton, so you probably just want to be sure to handle it carefully when piecing. If you encounter a piece that frays a *lot*, then you might want to stabilize it or cut the piece with pinking shears.

One thing to be aware of is that cottons fade over time whereas polyesters do not. This can make a quilt look "odd" many years down the line. This kind of quilt should be kept out of sunlight as much as possible, because light fades fabric.

Still, I would use it as you describe for a memory quilt.

Scrap Happy

Thank you for your help Prism99. That makes sense about the quilt fading unevenly I never would have thought of that.

Scissor Queen

You can also heavily starch stretchy fabrics and they'll behave a little better.

Scrap Happy

Thank you Scissor Queen.