Homespun fabric - how does it wear?
 

I have some homespun fabric and thanks to the input from this board I was brave enough to start a quilt with. I am very happy with how this is progressing. Now I am thinking about the finishing. I am going to use muslin for the backing and I might use the muslin to make a small border on the quilt top as well. I am wondering about the binding. I might have enough of the homespun fabric left to bind the quilt with that.. but I am wondering how it will wear? I don't want the binding to wear out - as I have seen on some older quilts

Do any of you have any ideas on that?

Thanks!

I'm not sure, but I think it would wear good enough. If you do a bias binding, I think it is stronger. I also use smaller stitches with homespun.

thanks.. I am using smaller stitches... and when I had to rip out a mistake it just about killed me :)

I would definitely pre-wash and pre-shrink the homespun before using it for binding. Bias bindings do wear better but are a little trickier to apply. If you have enough fabric for a bias binding, I would starch it heavily before cutting to help control the bias while you are stitching.

Thanks Prism99 I have already washed the fabric.. that was an adventure I will get the starch out and pile it on :)

It wears like iron!

Binding usually is the first think that shows wear. In my opinion, I would just do standard double fold binding of the best quality of fabric.

That sounds great!!! As long as its stays cuddly :)

I agree that is why I asked. I have seen older quilts where the binding is worn through - - even when the binding was double folded. Not sure how many years were in the quilt, but I guess I was hoping to prevent early wear.

ManiacQuilter2 - do you think I could bind with regular cotton fabric if the quilt top is homespun and the backing is muslin? Or would that look like a mismatch of fabric?

Or what do you see as being the best quality fabric?