Cheater Quilt Fabric? What?

October 9, 2008 1:01 PM

I am making a toddler-blanket for Christmas, but I've managed to buy fabric that I don't know how to work with. I know, smart, right?

so I have a waffle knit fabric (white with skulls!) and a black, pre-quilted backing (cheater quilt fabric?), as well as red satin binding for the edges. I have never worked with this fabric backing before, and I'm not sure what to do with it. Do I fuse it to the waffle stuff? I don't want to quilt the waffle knit.

I've been googling, but I don't think I'm googling the right thing because I'm getting lots of PRODUCT but not a lot of information on how to work with this stuff.

I may be over-thinking a plate of beans here.

posted by Medieval Maven to sports, hobbies, & recreation (7 comments total)

I don't know about this particular project, but I suggest you check out the Craftster Sewing forum or some such site for assistance.
posted by purpletangerine at 1:08 PM on October 9, 2008

Is the plan to use the waffle knit on the front in one piece, the prequilted on the back, and bind with the satin with no additional batting?

I am not sure how you are planning to get the waffle knit attached to the prequilted back with out re-quilting it. The idea with the cheater fabric is that you just bind it, you don't try to put something else on top. I would suggest you either do that and bind it with the red satin or you dump the cheater fabric and get a plain backing and some batting and make a real quilt. If you want more directions for that, I am happy to help.
posted by sulaine at 1:09 PM on October 9, 2008

Don't fuse it, it'll make it too stiff. What about tacking it with a simple whipstitch on a grid (maybe every 8 quilt pockets, or whatever you call them), if you see what I mean.

Alternately, have you tried googling quilters' and sew-ers forums?
posted by nax at 1:11 PM on October 9, 2008

It is generally verboten to mix knits with wovens in one project unless you are able to remove the stretchy from the knit via interfacing--something I wouldn't do in a blanket--or attempt some other solution to the stretchies. And an attempt to quilt a knit to a woven will result in some seriously unpleasant experiences, even if you have a walking foot. What you have for yourself is a very dicey sewing situation. If I were you I would make a onesie from the waffle fabric and attach the blanket binding to the cheater fabric for the blanket. Or piece a top from (woven!) quilting cottons and quilt that and bind it.
posted by hecho de la basura at 1:27 PM on October 9, 2008

Here's a great tutorial on binding (opens pdf).

You can bind the quilt following the directions without attaching the waffle to the quilted back, since the "cheater quilt fabric" is already bound to the batting. However, the two layers will shift from each other, which will look weird.

Fusing won't work well, permanent fusing materials will likely make it to stiff. Also many permanent fusing materials (tape, interfacing, etc.), I find really are not permanent after several washes.

There's really one one good way to attach these two fabrics together since you don't want to machine quilt and you're dealing with two different types of fabrics.

I would reccommend hand-tying the top, it's probably your best bet, with the least amount of change to the waffle weave. You can have the knots be on the quilted side and likely hide them in the skulls (white ties) or background (black ties). Here's directions on hand tying.
posted by pokeedog at 1:40 PM on October 9, 2008

pokeedog, thank you. I am going to try that. I know you're not "supposed" to mix knits and wovens, but for this project, well, the waffleknit was just too perfect and I can't find a woven skull print I like as well. Most other blankets I've made have been much easier affairs - I don't really quilt, as a rule, I generally make clothing, so I kind of blithely set myself up for something stupid here.

Purpletangerine - thank you for the link to craftster, I plan on signing up. Everyone else - thank you for tips on what NOT to do. You more or less confirmed my mental gamut of things I'd dismissed as really bad ideas or just unworkable.
posted by Medieval Maven at 3:34 PM on October 9, 2008

Do preshrink the waffle knit, lots. Sew with a straight stitch inside the seam allowance all around the knit before you sew it to anything else, it will stretch much less. It won´t look the way a project with only wovens would, but you see knits and wovens combined in commercial clothing all the time. No reason you can´t do it.
posted by yohko at 10:34 PM on October 9, 2008