My sister wants to make a bedspread made of pre-quilted material and we have no idea how to sew it together! She just wants to sew two long lengths of it together.

Does she just resign herself to having one side with seams?

Thank You!

Hi Celeste! :)

Your sister could always do what my mom used to do when she'd make us really fancy dresses out of fabrics such as chiffon where you could see through the fabric and she didn't want the raw edges to show. I think she called them "French seams" but don't quote me on that :wink:

Anyway, you simply make a narrow seam first by placing the wrong sides together, and then you re-do that same seam by making a slightly deeper seam with the right sides together. That hides all the raw edges on the inside. She could even go one step further and press that "seam" flat with a good hot iron, and then top stitch down the outside edge on both sides making it look and feel virtually seamless. Hope that made some kinda sense! :D

Try it out on some scrap fabric you have at home and you'll see what I mean.

It is called a french seam. I do it a little different. putting the two sides together do a 5/8 seam cut down the one side to about half fold the wide side over double and sew down. Looks like the seam on a good pair of blue jeans. I think that would look fine.

Yes Susan. That certainly would work too, and it would probably be even less bulky that way.

when you sew a narrow seam first, wrong sides together, then turn it to sew again, right sides together, you have made a French Seam.

when you sew wrong sides together, trim away half the seam allowance on one side, fold the other side over and under, then topstitch (as in jeans) it's called a Flat Felled seam.

for pre-quilted fabric i would recommend the Flat Felled method. take the extra step of VERY CAREFULLY picking out the quilting stitches and clipping out the batting from at least one side of the seam allowance. preferably both.

since it's for a bedspread, i'd suggest another option: use a very narrow sashing strip on the back so the two edges touch when it's flat. then attach another sashing strip - any width she thinks would look good - to the top. like a quilt-as-you-go might be done.

Thanks! I showed this to my sister and she's mulling it over. I've volunteered to help her, so we'll see how this gets done!

Go to the America Quilts Creatively website. click on projects, series 800 scroll to double sided quilt. You can print out the instructions.
If you have QNNTV you can watch the episode. Of course they now charge by the year to watch videos but it is worth it for beginners to get lessons.
This is a beautful quilt and is easy to do. You can make any size you want. the only problem would be to find all the double sided quilt fabric with coodinating fabrics to do it.

My suggestion would be to not put the seam in the middle. Instead cut the fabric to fit the top of the mattress, plus seam allowance then cut another panel in half and have the seam along the edge like the bedspreads you buy.

Linda

That french seam is similar to the blue jean seam. Where you make one side deep enough to fold over the other side. It is basically the same seam only one edge is trimmed close to the seam the other edge is then folded over then topstitched. If she made two long seams strategically placed to follow along either edge of the bed it would give the spread a more tailored look.
I made a spread similar once. I didn't have enough fabric for a Queen size, so I attached a pleated bed skirt to the edge all the way around. I used gray and white pillow ticking and quilted an old mattress pad to the back. I attached the pleated skirt reverse fabric to reverse fabric and then trimmed the seam with home made bias tape in a contrasting color. The pleated skirt was a light weight broad-cloth in pale grey to match the grey in the main spread. It took an evening or two to finish it and I also made a couple pillow shams trimmed with the same green bias tape. The last time I washed it though I treated it with oxyclean and left it sit over night, I did not know that stuff would bleach fabric. So I plan to recycle it for use in the camper. It's time for a new cover anyway which of course will be a new quilt specially made my me:D

That was going to be my suggestion, too. I've made them with the full width of the fabric in the middle and a matching length of the same fabric cut down the middle to make the sides. The french seam is not as complicated as it sounds and it makes a nice finish that will keep it from raveling.

When I made my last one, I didn't like the underside of the quilted fabric so I used the wonder under to fuse another fabric to the underside and then used blanket binding all around the edges. (Wonder under doesn't gum up the needles)

It will be beautiful and fast no matter what she decides to use.
Hugs,
Sharon