shayarene

Hello Everyone, I just made a queen sized flannel rag quilt for my grandson's 3rd bday. He just got his first big boy bed and his mom wanted it bigger so he would have it for years. LOL I took it to the laundromat yesterday to give it the first washing and drying so it would rag out. LOL It didn't rag as much as I wanted, but I have a problem, It is totally full of little lintys. How do I get all those fuzzies off it front and back so it looks new again before I send it to him. I don't want him to think Grandma sent him a used linty blanket. I sat for over an hour with an old lint brush, but it didn't do so great. I tried to back roll packing tape and dob it all over. OMG this is a nightmare and now, I have 2 more grandchildren that want one of Grandma's soft warm raggedy quilts. LOL I used dryer sheets in dryer in hopes that would help, I changed lint trap every 10 mins but really not much in it later on. The quilt turned out beautiful for him and I love it but need those lintys gone. Any suggestions or do I just have to sit and pick them off forever?

Tartan

Flannels sometimes pill. Unless you want to pull every pill off by hand the other option is a sweater de-fuzzer. Use the one with the little blades inside a screen that cuts off the pills. You can get then battery driven or ekectric. I have one for removing pills off my favourite chair.

GingerK

The only thing I can think of is to put it thru the washer again, like you would if you'd left a kleenex in the pocket while doing laundry. Or maybe use one of those electric sweater shavers but that would be a lot of work.

ManiacQuilter2

I only made one rag rug, took it to the laundromat and had no problems. I wonder if the lint catcher hadn't been cleaned. I would just use one of the tape lint rollers first.

cathyvv

As the saying goes, I feel your pain!

I think that, when drying a queen size flannel rag quilt, the lint filter should be cleaned out several times during the drying cycle. This is especially true if the fabric was not pre-washed.

Probably the best thing to do to remove the pills is to get one of those sweater shavers and use it.

GrannieAnnie

go buy your self a couple lint rollers. They are fairly inexpensive. And if you don't have a good tweezers, buy one of those too. but use the lint roller first. Lint is just one of those things flannel is good at. The soft fuzzy finish is custom made to grab lint. (dog hair, too, if you have dogs).

I do think I'd run the blanket thru the home dryer a couple times using 2 or 3 dryer sheets each time.--------set on no heat.

GrannieAnnie

So you think she should have cleaned the filter sooner than every 10 minutes? Maybe so

Prism99

The quilt pilled extensively after its first washing and drying at the laundromat. OP tried to remove some of the pills by washing and drying again at home, which is when she checked the lint filter every 10 minutes.

The dryers at my laundromat do not have lint filters I can clean.

Flannels pill for a couple of reasons. One is that a lot of flannel pills no matter how you handle it. It is probably the exception these days to buy flannel that doesn't pill. There are only a couple of brands posters have mentioned that can be relied on not to pill. The other big cause of pilling is having the flannel rub against other fabrics (and even against itself). This is probably what happened to the OP. Using the largest front-loading washer you can find helps, because it minimizes how much rubbing of fabric occurs during the wash. Top-loading machines with central agitator posts are probably the worst unless you never let the machine agitate (stop the machine and hand-agitate instead).

I'd invest in a sweater defuzzer.

shayarene

Thank you everyone for the great advice. I did take this quilt to a laundromat and like someone mentioned, the dryer didn't have a lint trap for me to clean. Then when I got home, I shoved it into my dryer with a couple dryer sheets, that helped a little bit. I will stop on my way home today and buy a couple lint brushes. I will try that first and then maybe save up for a defuzzer LOL Thank you everyone. I appreciate all the great info. I read online somewhere at one time to put vinegar in the wash and it won't catch lint, but I can't remember where I read it or how much vinegar to use. :-) Have a fantastic day everyone. Rachel

PurplePassion

"I just made a queen sized flannel rag quilt for my grandson's 3rd bday. He just got his first big boy bed and his mom wanted it bigger so he would have it for years. "
Wow queen size is pretty big for a 3 year old. A lot of the flannels do pill, that is the reason I stopped making the rag quilts.