Which fabric to use for quilting?

[hisgirlfriday]

I quite fancy having a go at making at patchwork quilt but havent a clue where to start. My mum does a lot with scouts and ends of up with jumble sale leftovers so I was hoping to combine the 2 and do it on the cheap.

She has a big binliner of unsold clothes and I am going to go through and pick out anything suitable. Does it have to be cotton? Would old shirts be OK or would that be too thin? I am guessing t-shirt material would be a bit hard to sew with it being stretchy? Can I have different weight fabrics in the same quilt?
Any advice greatefully received.

Well I am not an expert, but "proper" quilters say that you should use good quality fabric as a quilt takes the same time and workmanship regardless of what materials you use.

However, I have seen lots of quilts on the web made from old shirts etc.here here hereherehereeven more here

I think you are best to use similar weight fabrics as I think the different weights could cause stress on the seams, i also read somewhere that sheets should be avoided as the thread count is very high which means it would be a bugger to sew through when you do the quilting. If you look closely and can see the individual threads woven then i guess the fabric should be ok to use imo.

I am currently working on a quilt (my 4th) and have used a mixture of quilting fabrics, cheap cottons and poly cottons from fabricland and some pillowcases (with a fairly "open-weave") Although again, "proper quilters wouldnt mix cotton/poly cotton.

The other rule is with pre-washing fabrics, I was told you should wash All or NOTHING, so if you add bought fabrics to the thrifted fabric, you should wash the new fabric first.

I borrowed some books from the library to get me going but then did a beginners course...good luck - it is very addictive!

Ideally patchwork fabric is 100% cotton and of a similar weight. Crazy patchwork sometimes uses different weights and types of fabrics but it isn't usually the sort of thing a novice would start with. I suppose if you have done other sorts of sewing you might do a better job than I would!

Soccerwidow is right that everything should be prewashed but I wouldn't necessarily bother - depends on whether you were going to make something that was going to washed a lot like a child's quilt - then it would be a good idea because if you leave it until it is made up and some of the fabrics shrinks in the wash, even slightly, it will spoil the quilt. Shouldn't be a problem with old shirts though since they have been washed many times. Also I do sometimes buy precut squares and you can't wash those before putting them together or they would all end up being different shapes and sizes!

The shirts would make a good quilt. The fabric of a cotton shirt is pretty much the same as quilting fabric.

Soccerwife - love your links!

Thanks for the advice - love the links. I am going to start very small and try and do a quilt for DD's dolls cot! That way I wont need many squares and it should be manageable as a first attempt. Interestng that you say not sheets, soccerwidow, I wouldnt have thought they'd be much different than shirt material. Think I will probably pre wash everything as it has been sat in binliners in a garage for a while, and I'm sure most people wouldnt bother to wash something before sending it off to jumble.

I googled "shirt quilt" for the links. I always search through images rather than the web and have found some wonderful blogs that way.

Depending on how much fabric you manage to get out of your clothes you could try this method. This is how I was taught on my course, only I sew the strips into pairs and then sew 2 pairs together to make strips of four blocks. Much easier than sewing blocks but not so easy if using scraps.

Also try googling (images) scrap quilt or string quilt for ideas.

You can use anything you want but I agre it works better if they are the same weight. Cotton washes really well once youve made the quilt and goes all soft and comforting like a quilt is meant to be. Shirting is lovely and makes a great quilt imho.