applique

Great for dog beds.

RugosaB

35-40 years ago my husband's grandma did the same thing. She backed it with a sheet. You guessed it, the sheet is tatered, the polyester is fine. It used to be a 'car quilt' but now it's in a corner waiting for someone to love it again.

nanacc

My friend has never mentioned an issue with the stretching. If I remember sewing polyester clothing(many yrs ago!) correctly; as long as tension is not applied to fabric as it is stitched, all is fine.

Quercus Rubra

I know from someone who use to work with it for utility quilts that she would place a piece of plain white paper (like for making copies) on the back side and some odd reason it wouldn't stretch. She would remove the paper or not depending on her mood. She was from the Mennonite community and loved re-cycling fabrics that others hated or didn't want. You might want to give it a try on a small but simple one-square pattern lap quilt as a tester. If you don't like it you could donate it to charity or find an older quilter who has worked with it in the past. Just some food for thought.

Tricia

needles3thread

Use two pieces of fabric; one for the front and one for the backing. Tie and bind. Done.

ScrapQuilter

thanks for all the wonderful feed back............... I do have a grandson who did have a polyester quilt my aunt make many years ago........ he just loved it till his dog got a hold of it. Can't ask her as she about the sewing as she is no longer with us. Thanks again.

GailG

The "stretch" property is a plus in making seams fit. As you sew, just hold the fabric with your left hand behind the presser foot and one hand in front. Give the fabric a little stretch - only a firm hold will allow the fabric to stretch as you stitch which aids the seam from popping stitches in rugged use. The seam will bounce back when you release your hold. Back in the day, there was a technique called Stretch and Sew which taught garment sewing with the then new stretch fabrics.

HillCountryGal

I still have two double knit quilts my Mother made from scraps. They will NEVER wear out!

Like you, I acquired some double knit. Made lap quilts for nursing home folks. Even with all the very hot water washes, they can't destroy them. Double knit quilts are very warm. You don't have to use a batting, but if you do... an old flannel sheet works great.

maviskw

I do the little stretch thing when I sew the double knits. I try to make the pattern as simple as possible: like 6 inch squares. The quilts look really cute and they never wear out. My friend had one she wanted redone because the back had worn out, so she and I fixed it and then tied it. It was really old by this time, but looked fine.

By the way, I also do a little stretch whenever I am sewing two bias pieces together. Just put a slight pressure on the fabric in front of the needle and let the feed dogs work for their fabric. The bias will relax after the sewing, and the seam won't pop when five little monkeys are jumping on the bed.

DonnaC

Those fabrics would make a nice rag quilt. When I made some gift pillows/quilts from my mom's clothes after she passed away, a lot of the fabric was double knit and there was a bunch of regular single knits as well. I used my Accuquilt rag die to cut them up and they looked really nice.