I have a friend who wants to make a quilt out of her granddaughter's bathing suits that she has collected from the time the girl was 7 years old. This little girl is a Make-a-wish child and swimming is what has kept her lungs functioning so this quilt will be very special to her. Some of the bathing suits have stretched out. My suggestion was to stabilize the pieces of bathing suit to pieces of muslin, but if the fabric is stretchy that work? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

My daughter was a swimmer and I know how special her suits were. They are really chlorine damaged and I don't know how you would use them. Could you do something with her medals and ribbons, t-shirts maybe?? Blocks with signatures of coaches or other swimmers would be nice, too. Do her parents have photos that you could make into memory blocks?
Just trying to think of some alternatives.

Could you applique the bathing suits to a square of cotton fabric, then use those squares to make the quilt with?

That was the idea Bea had (lady who is making the quilt) but wouldn't the bathing suit fabric be stretchy on a piece of cotton? Would you leave it that way? Is there some type of iron on stuff that wouldn't wash out to keep it flat?

I've never done this, but maybe if you used 505 spray adhesive to attach it to a piece of muslin, then quilt heavily before you washed it???

Does the 505 wash out?

that sounds like it would be worth a try

First, go to your local thrift shop and buy a couple of old suits to play with. What I would do is cut the suit up the sides and remove the back. Then cut across the suit at the waist. measure them all and get the dimensions of the largest one and cut all your squares that size (I'd use some 'water' colored batik, or light blue). Then I'd machine applique the tops (bodice?) of the suit on to each block. I'd probably try and get away with no interfacing, but you may need to fuse the suit to the backing. You could try and just use a heart shaped piece of fusable. Need to use a press cloth to make sure that you don't melt the suit. You could practice on the discarded backs. You could quilt a simple heart on each bodice, and do waves on the background fabric.

I agree, use steam a seam 2 LITE , machine applique, it wouldn't need but a small amount of quilting on the suits if you use warm and white or natural batting, you may could just do allover waves, and just let them run over the suits

Thank you! Using thrift store suits is great idea to practice on so she doesn't ruin the real ones from her granddaughter! I also never thought that the bathing suit fabric could melt. Thanks so much!!