Washing Layer Cake Before Sewing
10-06-2022, 03:20 AM
#11
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 15
Thank you all so much for your input. Your willingness to share your knowledge is wonderful and I think I won't buy any more layer cakes either. A lot of concern that they might bleed isn't worth it. So.....I'll cut my own!.
Blessings.
Pegela
Blessings.
Pegela
10-06-2022, 07:45 AM
#12
Power Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Elsinore, CA
Posts: 15,242
I don't often buy precuts, but I fully understand why people like to buy layer cakes, jelly rolls, etc. You get an assortment of all the fabrics in the line! I have wound up with a few, and I use them, often fussing (cussing?) because of the pinked edges or the inability to prewash, but I've never been unable to make the pattern work with the precuts, and I'm happy that I had the variety of fabrics to work with.
I'm wondering - when people say they "make their own" layer cakes, do they really mean that? Do they actually cut 10" squares out of 20 or so fabrics?
I'm wondering - when people say they "make their own" layer cakes, do they really mean that? Do they actually cut 10" squares out of 20 or so fabrics?
10-06-2022, 12:42 PM
#14
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2022
Location: Northeast
Posts: 682
I like precuts and buy them before yardage. Easier to store and I have one print or more of the whole line. And they look so inspirational on my shelf. I want to get one and start sewing. I use steam and press them. I put a piece of muslin on the ironing surface so if any bleeding happens I will see it.
Fabric will shrink in one direction. If a jelly roll it will shrink in length not width. So depending on how the pre cut is cut depends on grain line when cut.
I don't use layer cakes or charm squares if I need exactly the square size.
Fabric will shrink in one direction. If a jelly roll it will shrink in length not width. So depending on how the pre cut is cut depends on grain line when cut.
I don't use layer cakes or charm squares if I need exactly the square size.
I started doing this as I was finding that because I buy pretty much all my fabric online, sometimes it hard to find the fabrics that would go together for a quilt. What the color looks like on the computer isn't always the same as the true color. Going with the pre-cuts, I know all the fabrics that I put in the 'one' quilt will match/go together.
I use jelly rolls, charms, layer cakes, fat quarter bundles, and honeybuns. Whatever size I need to make the pattern. It is also inspirational to see them on my shelves. I usually buy enough for the quilt pattern that I have in mind. Then I just reach for the shelf and it's all there.
I watch for sales and usually spend less with buying the pre-cuts than I would if I bought just off the shelf yardage, because I have less waste with the pre-cuts and matching yardage and don't end up with orphan fabrics because one or more of the fabrics are not the color I thought they were. Plus it saves so much time. I don't have to spend time in trying to pull off the shelf yardage that would go together for an entire quilt. It's right at my fingertips, with no second guessing myself on the fabric choices.
