Using Fleece for the First Time - Comments
For the past few days I have been working with fleece fabric for the first time and would like to share my thoughts and tips with those who may be considering using it.
My ‘quilted blanket’, as I now call it, has a top made from 5 inch squares and a back made from a lightweight anti-pile fleece - I did not use wadding or batting.
I did not realise fleece has a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ side. Apparently the selvage curls to the Right side. I was caught out by this on my first attempt. The pile finish did not go right to the edge of the fabric on the right side so I had to make some adjustments to the binding when I Did realise!
It was very easy to secure the top to the fleece before quilting. I used large pins rather the safety pins. It did not need a lot of pinning as the top did not shift or slide. Th fleece did not stretch as I sewed it.
I did have a problem with my sewing machine ‘jumping’ or missing stitches. I tried a number of things and found positioning the needle to the left instead of centre sorted the issue - don’t know why!
I ‘stitched-just-outside-the-ditch’ of each block. Some of the blocks were made up of 6 x 5 inch - so I ‘tied’ the squares by doing 6 - 8 machines stitches where the blocks met to hold them in place. (Not sure if this was necessary).
For my first attempt I added a cotton binding - this worked fine. On the second I folded the fleece over from the back - I think this is called ‘self binding’.
I mitred the corners as shown in this video -
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TtXmuARqg38
As the edges don’t fray I didn’t turn over a narrow hem - I just stitched round once with a straight stitch then went back round with a zig-zag.
I’m happy with the finished project and would use fleece again.
Hope my comments help someone else and would love to hear from other fleece users.
Last edited by QuiltnNan; 10-01-2019 at 07:49 AM.
Reason: shouting/all caps