Originally Posted by
Daffy Daphne
The few times I've bought wide backings I've lost a lot at the ends because of being off grain, plus to me they are a pain to prewash and iron! I'd rather deal with seaming regular width fabric for backing.
Daffy
Yep...I used wide backings for a while. some were decent, some a nightmare. I did decide to always buy an extra half yard no matter what because of the uneven edges, figured I would use that extra fabric somewhere, but I also found, that quality of the backings sometimes was not up to snuff. So, Yep, I look for on sale regular yardage to make my backings with, easier to handle and not that hard to stitch together with a walking foot. Now, I just line up the selvedges after cutting it into the lengths I need, stitch the selvedges together using at least a 1 and a quarter seam, then trim the selvages off with my scissors. Could use my rotary cutter but my big cutting table is on another floor so I just sit in my sewing chair and trim. Works well for me and there is a lot more choice in the fabrics to use for the backing. Oh, and I also leave the outer selvages on and use those to pin to my leaders on my long arm, those of course also get trimmed off after I get doe quilting.