Originally Posted by
SandyinZ4
Wow! PaperPrincess...what a score. But...what to do with them. Sounds like they would be wonderful in a quilt but would you have to put some kind of stabilizer on the back first. I have never even seen raw silk let along 5 bolts of it. Can you share a picture please? Anyone want to enlighten me as to how one would use these. :-) And red...oooh...my favorite color!
Long story. I was making quilts out of recycled shirts. In the Detroit area, the Salvation Army has 5 for $5 on Fridays so I was going on Fridays & getting 5 (0r 10, or 15) cotton shirts. While looking for the cottons, I saw lots of washable silk shirts, also a buck, so I decided to make a silk quilt. The shirts are just amazing, mostly pastels, many are jacquards or aloha floral prints. The design I'm planning on using is a controlled scrappy, and was thinking of getting some neutral color dupioni to tie everything together. My cousin knew I was planning this quilt, but forgot she had this stashed away. She came across the bolts of fabric when cleaning. The fabric from the shirts will need to have iron on stabilizer, but I don't think I will need to stabilize the raw silk, I'll need to experiment a bit before I make the final decision however. Raw silk is a rough fabric, sort of like homespun, and the texture is a lot different from the shirts which are more, well, silky. I think the 2 textures will add a lot of interest. I was putting off starting the quilt because when my BFF heard that I was getting these shirts for a buck, she told me I couldn't cut them until her husband looked them over first. He picked out 5 for his last BD, so I guess I'm free to start. Won't be until after the holidays.