Found this on the internet and thought it gave some good information on batik fabric. New needle needed.


Choose a sewing machine needle with a sharp point. Needles made for work with denim, or a very fine, sharp point such as the Microtex Sharp needle are good choices for working with the high thread count of batik fabrics.


Use light to medium weight silk, cotton or polyester thread when sewing batiks. Using the proper weight of thread will allow the finished piece to drape and form without bulkiness at the seams and hems

I'm a prewasher of everything. I recently washed a finished quilt before I gave it to my son. Knowing I had prewashed, I hesitated before I used a color catcher. Its a big quilt, so just at the last second I added 2 MORE color catchers. They came out dark navy blue! I wish I had added more as one of the white fabrics and two off white picked up dye. I'm glad I prewashed it as he would not have put in that many color catchers. AND if I ever get out a dark one when I prewash, I will keep washing till the fabric quits bleeding..OR throw the fabric out!

Gosh you all, thank you so much for the information. I feel better about starting on it now. I think I will order some of the "aged" looking muslin in an ivory color. I believe with the "busyness" of some of the batiks, it would be much better to have a solid background. Plus today, I found a 108" backing that is batiks but all in fall colors. I think that would be gorgeous on the back, unless I wimp out and buy the same muslin for the back because it's cheaper. (and that's probably exactly what I'll do too)
Good advice from everyone! THANK YOU so much!!!

I just got done "testing/washing" over 200 pieces of batik. I have been buying them for over a year when I found a pattern that called for 30 fat quarters - Lucky Stars. I just loved them so much that I kept buying but decided to buy 1/2 yard pieces instead of the fat quarters - more, if I found a bargain on batiks somewhere (not very often though). I finally decided that I had enough and started washing them in a pure white kitchen dishpan. OH MY, about 1/2 of them bled and actually wound up throwing two of them away because they never did stop bleeding. I put lukewarm water in my dishpan along with a few drops of detergent and squeezed my pieces around a few times to see if they bled. If they did not, then I rinsed in cool water, wrung out very gently and rolled up in fluffy towels - then put them on an indoor clothesline to dry. Not too much wrinkling that way. Some, I had to rinse many times until the water was clear.

Try to make sure your muslin has a similar thread count and weave to the batiks. Some of the loosely woven, flimsy muslins wouldn't play very well at all with batik.

If it's all you can afford, then fine, but otherwise I would never use muslin of any kind with batik. Too much like sneakers with an evening gown, imho. :lol:

Ghostrider,
What would you suggest for a background fabric then? I've looked for a rather plain batik background, but they are few and far between I'm learning. I can't find one that isn't heavily patterned. Any suggestions??

Try looking at Kaufman's Artisan Batiks. There are 23 pages of them on the Hancock's of Paducah site and that should give you a good idea of what's available.
http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/Item...atiks--srcin-1

A good choice might be one of these for example:
http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/Item--i-K-9483-157
http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/Item--i-K-7000-15
http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/Item--i-K-11604-96

Here's a sort using cream batiks that might help, too
http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/Item...abrics--m-4132

There are really quite a lot of small pattern, tone on tone batiks in pale colors these days. Batiks have come a long way from their roots. :D Happy hunting.