Originally Posted by
sewbizgirl
Lol, Bear!
The only way I would do sleepers would be to applique the fronts of them onto cotton quilting fabric. And as they are knit, yes you do need a fusible backing such as you use for T shirt quilts. French Fuse or another tricot interfacing is what I use.
If you are up for the project, go for it!
That's the only way I can envision using them - unless one cut them apart - and then what would be the point of using them?
If I remember sleepers correctly, they were horrible to fold and always looked like a wad - worse than fitted sheets that had elastic all the way around - they were knit - had snaps - and the really old ones had a drawstring on the bottom.
I would look at them very carefully before committing to trying to use them. They might be very worn - or they might be almost new -
Some of the knits were extremely stretchy -
Knits are not created equally. There are some knits I would consider using "as is" in a quilting project - they have almost no stretch. One needs to consider fiber content, stretchiness, density/thickness of the fabric - all sorts of factors.
Several years ago at The Minnesota Quilt Show - someone had appliquéd what looked like old, faded, rumpled nightgowns to a quilt. The whole thing looked like an unmade made to me. Whatever the point of it was, I think I missed it.
I think it is possible to do something "cute" with sleepers - the idea of working with them just does not appeal to me - at all.