Hi to all my friends. I want to make a couple dog blankets and want to embroider on flannel. Can someone or everyone give me ideas? Do I need to first wash and dry this material a couple times? This is just for my little dog and my little granddog (lol) so nothing that has to be perfect. I am going to make them each a quilt of their own. I will embroider on the flannel and use fleece for the back. Any suggestions would be helpful and fun. Thank you and hope everyone has a great weekend.

Yes, I would wash and dry the fabrics first. flannel does shrink. How nice of you to make a quilt for the doggies.

I ALWAYS wash in hot and dry on hot. Gracious, after all that, it shouldn't shrink! :-)

Well, I just threw some flannel fabric in the washer. Have fun making the doggie gifts. Flannel is a great choice for your project, but I must say I have never embroidered on it.

agree with others.... i always preshrink, especially flannel

I have embroidered on flannel and it works like anything else. I always put my grandkids names and the dates on their rag quilts.

So Debra do you wash it first? I don't usually wash my materials before using them.

Always pre wash flannel (except when makeing rag quilt) it can shrink several inches per yard....when embroidering if your stitches seem to 'sink into' the fabric you may want to consider putting on a top piece of stabilizer, either a melt away or wash away, (what you would use on fleece or towels) otherwise you could loose it into the fabric.....

Very good advice!!! :thumbup:

Yes, always prewash flannel.

I do not have an embroidery machine, so cannot help with that.

However, I would only embroider the dogs name. Flannel is usually checked or striped and too heavy a looking fabric to be embroidered.

Use water soluable stabilzer on the top for your design, flannel has a nap to it..........calla

if your using the same type of flannel, as in from the same store and section (not mixing quilt/ crafting with apparel) Washing shouldn't be needed. They'll shrink together in the first wash. If you wash it before hand it will start to ravel and you'll loose the little bit of stiffening agent the manufacturers use to make the cutting easier. Then it could be a pain. If your just using flannel from bits of shirts, those have been washed already and they'll be fine too. But if your going to add other types of fabrics, ie; cotton or silkies, I'd wash them all.

Rather than that, flannel is alot of fun to work with. Less pins needed to make it behave. Have fun. Hope it goes well ^_^

as long as the fabric shrinks together, its actually ok.

some good advice here, will have to mark this for sure

However, she said she wanted to use both flannel and fleece together. the fleece will not shrink and the flannel will shrink a lot, and considering its a dogs bed and will be washed alot, that is not going to work.....Two flannels together, yes...but not with fleece.

ah true. I must have skipped over the fleece part. oops

As several have said already, flannel shrinks a lot. I would even go so far to dampen it thoroughly and dry it on HOT twice. No surprises then because fleece does not shrink.

If it's a color that runs, use retayne on it.

I made a quilt last Christmas withy fleece backing and flannel top. I had washed the flannel and preshrunk it and it did ok. It was a bear to machine quilt because of the fleece on the back. I used a walking foot and had to help pull it through.

what is "Retayne" and where do you buy it ????

I am making a flannel quilt for my son and have embroidered wildlife on 9" squares. I used a muslin color flannel, put a lightweight iron on permanent fusible interfacing on the back of the entire fabric before I cut any squares and used wash-away interfacing on the top. I made my embroidery on long strips that I marked the 9" squares on and then cut them apart when the whole strip was done. I did that so I would not have to work with small areas which may have caused a problem. When finished I removed the tear-away interfacing and starched it heavily. It was really easy to do and came out beautiful. Good luck on yours, I think you will be successful.

I prewash fannel because it shrinks and your embroidery thread doesn't and it will possibly cause puckering. I would also use a stabilizer and a topper (like you would use for towels) to keep the stitches from stinking into the flannel. Only to best for are 4legged kids & G-kids. I'm sure they will love it & besure to post pictures.

I'm sure your doggies will love their flannel and fleece blankets, but I would definitely wash the flannel first, as the dogs nails could get caught in the loosely woven flannel, not good.

You do need to use a top stabilizer. You may need more than one sheet. Try a practice piece first. If you don't, the stitches will sink into the nap and be totally lost. I use wash-away so I don't have to pick out those little pieces of paper.

I owned an embroidery business. PLEASE use wash away stabilizer on the top and tear away stabiler on the bottom and it will turn out perfect!!! and yes wash it first

I don't prewash my flannel if the whole quilt is flannel, including the backing. It all will shrink along with the batting with the first wash/dry.

I wash my flannel and starch it before I embroider on it. Starching has made working with flannel lots easier. Hope this helps. Lucky dogs!

I agree with deborahlees: flannel shrinks, fleece doesn't. You shouldn't mix the two kinds of fabrics for that reason. You are sooooo sweet to make your doggies their own beds, however!!!!!!

[quote=janetter]I owned an embroidery business. PLEASE use wash away stabilizer on the top and tear away stabiler on the bottom and it will turn out perfect!!! and yes wash it first


Thanks for that information. I'll keep a copy of this. Always good to get info from the professionals.

I used cutouts and used basting spray to hold it in place as I stitched arround it. came out kinda cool I did a fire hydrant w/ name on it and paw prints. I used cookie cutters for templates.