Can I use a poly/cotton ( Joann's Symphony) blend in a quilt?
 

I went to Joanns today and got a lot of fabric. But the green fabric I got was their symphony broadcloth fabric, Poly/Cotton 65%/35% blend. The darn stuff was in with all the Kona fabrics. I threw it into the cart and now I have 4 yards of it. I've prewashed and shrunk it. It goes well with the batik I purchased for his quilt. It's not as nice as the cotton but is there any reason I shouldn't use it? I'll put a nice cotton on the back so the throw quilt feels good to the skin.

What are the disadvantages to using this blend?
Have you used this symphony fabric before?
Thanks MJ

The disadvantage to mixing poly blends with cotton is their different fading properties. Poly will not fade, whereas cottons do. This is not noticeable at first but, over the years, with exposure to light and washings, the disparity can become very noticeable. All cotton fabrics fade. Vintage quilts have that soft look to them because all of the fabrics faded together.

The fading issue is not a problem when you use all cotton fabrics in a quilt, or all polyester fabrics in a quilt. The problem is only when you mix the two, and even then the issue only arises over time.

I mix the 2 and don't have no problem with it.

the "uneven fading issue" can also happen when using all cotton fabrics.

i have a quilt made with tans and dark blues - one if the blues is now a dirty tan.

ITA with Prism99



Another consideration .... poly/cottons may pill whereas cottons will not.


Yet another thought re the use of your poly/cotton ... you might consider it for your backing.

When I made my 1st QIAD, we were directed to poly/cotton for the backing fabric.
The reason being that it would "slide" better when using it as a bedspread or topper,
whereas the cotton would "stick" more and be harder to shift around.

And just as Prism99 mentioned ... the backing stayed true to colour, and top faded dreadfully.
I don't think I would have noticed the fade near as much,
if the direct comparison were not there staring at me in the face!

But it did slide nicely, and made for easy bed-making! :)

Just make sure you don't use the hot cotton setting on your iron or you may "melt" the poly/cotton.

The fading differential doesn't matter as much if it is a quick quilt intended for use and abuse, and/or a quilt that is not meant to become an heirloom.

Do you have a sunny window? What you can do is place a square of each fabric in the window and leave them there for a week or two. There are fading requirements on cotton fabrics, but the requirements are shockingly low. It's been years since I researched this, but it seems to me that cotton fabrics typically will show fading within 70 hours of exposure to sunlight. If you can leave your fabric samples in the sunny window, you can periodically check their fading by placing them on your unexposed yardage periodically. That will give them an idea of the fading differential between your green and the other fabrics, and help you decide if it is worth using the green fabric or not.

I would use either all cotton or all poly/cotton. Poly cotton wears like iron, cotton not so much.

A poly cotton blend will not hold a nice press either. It also has more "stretch" than an all cotton so be careful if you are sewing pieces on the bias, like HST's.

If the colors work, why not.
Mike