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Possible? (Moderated by Sharon1952)
Posted on: 11/3/10 4:07 PM ET
Ok, I made a practice quilt of flannel that has a "quilt" printed on it. I carefully bought enough fabric that I was able to repeat the pattern and enlarge it to baby quilt size.
I didn't pretreat it - figuring that it wouldn't matter with that small of a quilt (and I kinda like the puckery look).
But my daughter took one look at it, and fell in love with it. So for Christmas, I bought more of the fabric and continued the repeat the pattern, adding strips and chunks until it's the size of a double beadspread. It's made of probably 6 or maybe 8 pieces of fabric. I even copied the decorative printed "stitches" that are separating the different "blocks" so that it's VERY hard to see where one piece of fabric starts, and another begins.
The quilt back is a minkee-like fabric. It's going for machine quilting on one of those enormous computerized machines tomorrow.
But now, I'm having second thoughts about not having pre-treated the flannel, especially since it's grown so much in size.
I wasn't going to use a batting originally, but maybe one will stabilize the shrinkage?
Is it possible to wash it anyway? I'm just terrified my seams will unravel (well, not the few that I sewed on the serger, but most were done on the SM).
What if I merely wet it, and then put it in the dryer?, carefully wadded but sitting motionless on the drying rack (and I'd carefully unwad it, and re-wad it, to help the different areas get dry. I could then iron it to help?
Any ideas?
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I didn't pretreat it - figuring that it wouldn't matter with that small of a quilt (and I kinda like the puckery look).
But my daughter took one look at it, and fell in love with it. So for Christmas, I bought more of the fabric and continued the repeat the pattern, adding strips and chunks until it's the size of a double beadspread. It's made of probably 6 or maybe 8 pieces of fabric. I even copied the decorative printed "stitches" that are separating the different "blocks" so that it's VERY hard to see where one piece of fabric starts, and another begins.
The quilt back is a minkee-like fabric. It's going for machine quilting on one of those enormous computerized machines tomorrow.
But now, I'm having second thoughts about not having pre-treated the flannel, especially since it's grown so much in size.
I wasn't going to use a batting originally, but maybe one will stabilize the shrinkage?
Is it possible to wash it anyway? I'm just terrified my seams will unravel (well, not the few that I sewed on the serger, but most were done on the SM).
What if I merely wet it, and then put it in the dryer?, carefully wadded but sitting motionless on the drying rack (and I'd carefully unwad it, and re-wad it, to help the different areas get dry. I could then iron it to help?
Any ideas?
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My (mostly) green sewing blog: http://NapkinLady.blogspot.com/
Re: Shrinking a flannel quilt top AFTER its been assembled? (posted on 11/3/10 4:46 PM ET)
did you want to rid the flannel of sizing by pre washing or do you just want to let whatever shrinkage happen before quilting?
if your just preshrinking - not sure that's the correct term - but I would use a spray bottle with water and give it a go somewhere you can hang or lay it flat and then iron when a only bit damp.
If your not preshrinking I would wait until after the quilting and either send it to the dry cleaner or maybe a hand wash and hang dry.
I admit I get a bit nervous washing my quilts where I haven't prewashed the fabric and end up taking them to the dry cleaner when required.
if your just preshrinking - not sure that's the correct term - but I would use a spray bottle with water and give it a go somewhere you can hang or lay it flat and then iron when a only bit damp.
If your not preshrinking I would wait until after the quilting and either send it to the dry cleaner or maybe a hand wash and hang dry.
I admit I get a bit nervous washing my quilts where I haven't prewashed the fabric and end up taking them to the dry cleaner when required.
Posted on: 11/3/10 4:50 PM ET
In reply to aslinnd
Quote: aslinnd
do you just want to let whatever shrinkage happen before quilting?
do you just want to let whatever shrinkage happen before quilting?
I want to shrink it before it's quilted.
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My (mostly) green sewing blog: http://NapkinLady.blogspot.com/
Re: Shrinking a flannel quilt top AFTER its been assembled? (posted on 11/3/10 5:43 PM ET)
I would try steaming with an iron, or misting the flannel top and then pressing to induce the shrinkage. If the top isn't finished, I wouldn't put it through a wash cycle...
Would love to see pics - sounds like your daughter is very excited about this quilt! Isn't it a wonderful feeling when your child loves what you made?!
Would love to see pics - sounds like your daughter is very excited about this quilt! Isn't it a wonderful feeling when your child loves what you made?!
Posted on: 11/3/10 6:27 PM ET
In reply to quathy
Quote: quathy
Would love to see pics - sounds like your daughter is very excited about this quilt! Isn't it a wonderful feeling when your child loves what you made?!
Would love to see pics - sounds like your daughter is very excited about this quilt! Isn't it a wonderful feeling when your child loves what you made?!
Now, THAT I can do.
Here's a picture of the fabric/quilt top (the pink block w/ diagonals in the center is the subject of the closeup in the bottom picture):

Here's what the quilt back looks like:

Closeup showing "stitching:"

The stitching on the left vertical seam, and all of the horizontal seams (in the photo, that is) are all printed on the fabric. The right vertical seam on the other hand was created after I sewed on another strip/section of fabric with a straight stitch originally, then I pressed the seam to one side and stitched that decorative stitch over it, using a thread that very nearly matched the printed "seam". As you can see in the photo, you CAN see my seams, but they are actually hard to see - you have to be looking for them to notice their location. You can also feel them if you run your fingers over the fabric. Something that will be much less evident once it's quilted.
The reason I created this, was the ladies who teach the class on how to use the big long-arm machines (so that you can then rent them) told me I needed to have a quilt to do soon after the class (I thought they meant same day) to reinforce how to use the machine. So I created this as a "cheat" something quick but cute that was specifically meant to be quilted as a practice using the machine. I had one evening to create it, so it had to be something simple. But I didn't want to just do two whole fabrics with some batting - I wanted to be able to give it away as a baby gift when I was done.
But, my daughter loves it. So it's a nice convenient xmas gift.
-- Edited on 11/3/10 8:27 PM --
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My (mostly) green sewing blog: http://NapkinLady.blogspot.com/
Posted on: 11/4/10 0:19 AM ET
Update:
I gently wet the fabric in the bathtub, then crumpled it and put it on the drying rack in the dryer (it's usually for shoes or sweaters that need to lay flat to dry) and ran it on hot for quite awhile, but without the tumbling action, it stayed wet.
So I resigned myself to ironing it dry. After 45 or so minutes, and making it through maybe 1/8 of the quilt, I gave up and put it in the dryer (tumbling this time).
The seams stayed nearly pristine. The top stitching with the decorative stitch held things secure enough that they were barely touched. The outside edges frayed a tiny bit, but not bad at all. I then pressed it which gave me an opportunity to examine it VERY closely, and it's in fine shape.
So, wet once, and then once through the dryer. That'll have to do - I'm not doing that again until it's been quilted. :-)
Hopefully that'll help with the shrinkage.
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I gently wet the fabric in the bathtub, then crumpled it and put it on the drying rack in the dryer (it's usually for shoes or sweaters that need to lay flat to dry) and ran it on hot for quite awhile, but without the tumbling action, it stayed wet.
So I resigned myself to ironing it dry. After 45 or so minutes, and making it through maybe 1/8 of the quilt, I gave up and put it in the dryer (tumbling this time).
The seams stayed nearly pristine. The top stitching with the decorative stitch held things secure enough that they were barely touched. The outside edges frayed a tiny bit, but not bad at all. I then pressed it which gave me an opportunity to examine it VERY closely, and it's in fine shape.
So, wet once, and then once through the dryer. That'll have to do - I'm not doing that again until it's been quilted. :-)
Hopefully that'll help with the shrinkage.
------
My (mostly) green sewing blog: http://NapkinLady.blogspot.com/
Re: Shrinking a flannel quilt top AFTER its been assembled? (posted on 11/4/10 8:12 PM ET)
I love the fabrics and the back you chose - I know how over project you can get in the middle but that will be so nice when finished.
Posted on: 11/4/10 8:30 PM ET
In reply to aslinnd
Thanks!
As it turned out, I didn't drop it off today after all. I went to the store, but it was going to cost much more for them to do it than for me to rent their machine by the hour, so I booked myself some time tomorrow, and I'm going to do the quilting. Should take 2-3 hours.
I'll post photos.
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As it turned out, I didn't drop it off today after all. I went to the store, but it was going to cost much more for them to do it than for me to rent their machine by the hour, so I booked myself some time tomorrow, and I'm going to do the quilting. Should take 2-3 hours.
I'll post photos.
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My (mostly) green sewing blog: http://NapkinLady.blogspot.com/
Posted on: 11/5/10 8:30 AM ET
In reply to CathyWeeks
What a beautiful quilt! I love the fabrics and your stitch-in-the-ditch choice. No wonder your daughter fell in love with it.
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iPad's auto-correct is my enema.
Posted on: 11/5/10 12:34 PM ET
It's lovely! I'm inspired to take a second look at my flannel scraps.....
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