New to me-lawn fabric
 

A newsletter I receive has an appliquéd piece using lawn fabric. Is it a form of quilting cotton, more costly. Also a recent email ad from JAF listed apparel cotton on sale......different from quilting cotton?...

Lawn is a softer, more loosely woven cotton fabric. I think I've seen it at fabric.com.

I don't know about apparel cotton, but cotton is cotton. I would guess that it is only different from quilting fabric because of the print or how densely it is woven, but I don't really know.

bk

It's usually pretty lightweight. Back in the day, I used it for summer blouses or loose dresses.

I personally only use lawn fabric for clothes although I know a lot of people do use it for quilting as well. My experience with this is that it has been wider than the 42-44 of quilting cotton. It's been a while but I think it was 56 inches wide. Personally I think it's too expensive for use in a quilt.

Lawn is very fine, almost sheer usually cotton. Think of rich Victorian ladies in soft flowy dresses. I have one blouse that I have had for years in a lawn print but it is not something that we seem to see very often, at least here in B.C.

I backed a quilt with lawn a couple years ago, and I love it! The lawn is very soft and smooth. I've also made a couple summer shirts out of it.

Cotton lawn is woven from finer thread than quilting cotton, but the threads are usually closer together, so it's not open like a gauze. I wouldn't use it in a utility quilt because it will probably wear faster than quilting cotton, but for a couch throw it's very nice. I like it for backing because it is generally 55ish inches wide, so you can make a wider throw without piecing the back.

I love cotton lawn! I actually lined my wedding dress with it. We were married in early September and it was hot. The outer part of the dress was a poly microfiber (pink!), so I lined it with cotton lawn for a bit of coolness and softness against my skin. It was very soft and smooth. I also have a few blouses I made from cotton lawn. They're perfect for summer (and sunburns :( ) because the fabric is so lightweight, breathable, and nearly sheer.

The quilting lawn fabric is a finer weave, so is very nice to applique with. Sue Daley uses it in her English paper-piecing.

Liberty fabric is mostly lawn. Very lightweight and luxurious.

I'm thinking that the dresses that babies used to wear were made of lawn. Very fine fabric and soft against baby skin. And a dress!!!!!--remember the days?