Originally Posted by
MadQuilter
How so? The seams are clipped every 1/4"-1/2". Please explain it to me. My BFF is thinking about making a rag quilt for a friend's baby and I am her mentor.
Originally Posted by
Candace
The cut fabric frays and creates fuzz, long threads or pulled fabric pieces that can choke a baby and get wrapped around fingers.
What Candace said. The whole point of a rag quilt is for it to fray. Unless you're going to the put Fray Block on every bit of raw edge (which, by the way, I recommend against), the quilt is going to fray both with use & laundering. All it takes is a single thread the length of their pinky finger to wrap itself around a toe or finger tight enough to cut off circulation.
I really try not to give in to all the insane hype out there about the 50 million dangers to babies, but this one actually seems rather legit. It happens both with regular cotton thread & with mono or any of the other synthetics. When we use 40wt or heavier, it's usually very noticeable. When we use silk, mono or another thread that is very thin (like human hair), it can get tightly wrapped around the finger/toe & be partially hidden by the folds of skin/fat spilling over the location of the thread tourniquet. For that reason, I limit all raw edges & if I have one, I make sure to add a blanket/decorative stitch at least every 1/8".