Question
 

Cotton vs, polyester. Personally I like the sheen of polyester but the true quilters are probably screaming right now. But now I'm wondering how these fabrics will age. Will poly live forever, while cotton will naturally deteriorate? My first quilts were poly/cotton blends. Aging quilts of cotton from years past show deterioration and color loss, especially browns, blacks and some reds. Polyester seems to hold those dyes better. Will the cotton portion of these blends fall apart, leaving only the polyester threads? Why do "real quilters" frown on polyester? --if it's because of the "purist" connection, then it seems to me that the long-arm stitchery, esp pantograph quilting, is not consistent. Just pondering......

I don't like to use poly or poly blend fabric for several reasons.
1. I don't like the feel of it against my skin - even in my clothes I much prefer cotton.
2. It is difficult to get a good crease when pressing
3. The polys and poly blends end up "glazing" with too much heat from the iron.
4. I like the vaster selection of prints and colors I get with cotton
5. I prefer working with the better "behaved" cotton and like the feel of cotton next to my skin.

I do, however, absolutely LOVE to quilt with polyester threads. I prefer poly threads over cotton, especially in the LA. I prefer them for the following reasons:
1. The high speeds at which a LA operates produces a lot of lint in cotton threads. Inevitably that lint will end up getting caught in my bobbin spring and messing up my tension. I do not have this problem with poly threads.
2. I love the variety of weights and looks I can get from poly threads

When it comes to batting I like all. Poly, poly cotton blend, all cotton, wool , silk blends and bamboo. All depends on the application.

I agree with feline fanatic. Didn't we all HATE those polyester suits of the 70s?? One of my first quilts I used polyester thread and it literally shredded the cotton fabrics. Mind you, I do believe that polyester thread has improved in the last 40 years, but I still cringe when I use a polyester thread by Superior because it has such a shinny gold.

Interesting - one of my very favorite outfits - ever - was made of royal purple double knit polyester.

I also like the cotton-polyester sheets (at least 50% cotton blend).

I have made quilts using dual-duty cotton covered polyester that are doing just fine - these are washed frequently and are all over ten years old.

One of the very favorite quilts has brushed Arnel (feels like velvet or velveteen - was used for housecoats and robes)
for the border and backing, t-shirt knit for the binding, cotton prints for the center and Warm and Natural "cotton" batting. It was sewn with Coats & Clark Dual Duty Thread. The brushed Arnel will tolerate STEAM heat up to the line between polyester and cotton. It will melt if it gets overly hot dry iron heat.

The fabrics were probably cut with an Olfa 45 mm or 60 mm rotary cutter with an Olfa blade, after having been washed in my Maytag washing machine with some low fragrance detergent, and then dried in my Maytag dryer. I then sewed them on my Pfaff 1471 with a Schmetz needle - probably an 80 - and I probably used Coats & Clark Dual Duty thread - the cotton covered polyester version. I probably snipped threads with a Gingher scissor. I trimmed the blocks using a template I made from template plastic (9.75 inch squares). I cut the pieces on a 32x60 inch mat by Sew/Fit Company. I used rulers OmniGrid rulers back then, and used a 48 inch aluminum ruler by Fairgate and the 16.5 inch square by Quilter's Rule when doing the final trimming before applying the border.

I am a bit of a purist - I prefer to have all the components of an item have the same care (cleaning) tolerance because - so far - everything I've made has been intended for a lot of use and I expect the items to get dirty.

I also like prefer to have a top made of approximately all the same weight fabrics - denim and corduroy together, as compared to slinky rayon and canvas tarp.

I think people use what they do for some of the following reasons:

1) It is available
2) It is affordable
3) It is what they prefer to use
4) It is suitable for the purpose intended
5) It will hold up to the care needed for it (frequent machine washes in hot water as compared to being behind glass on a wall in subdued lighting)

As far as which fabrics wear out first - even an all-cotton top may wear out unevenly. I made a quilt for my daughter using Kona cottons and "regular quilting cotton" - the Kona has outlasted the other fabric. Big dogs climbing on the bed did not help the survival of the quilt any, but the Kona has held up well. :rolleyes:

I suppose it's an individual choice, like most everything in quilting. Personally, I'm quite happy to be a 'natural' fabric snob, i.e., those made from plant or animal fibers. I just can't imagine making quilts out of petroleum byproducts. Polyester doesn't breathe, it melts and sticks to the skin when ignited, it's non-biodegradable, and I just choose to avoid using it in anything that goes into my quilts - fabric, batting and thread included. :o

I won't even buy tops unless they are 100 percent cotton. Why? Because I live in Arizona and I am always hot and cotton is the coolest. I also quilt with only Cotton.

I like sewing cotton/poly blends. But they are hard to find in the great prints we want for quilts.

I remember making a teal blue double knit polyester pants suit back in the 60's and I literally had to beat the crease into the pants:)

I agree with the reasons listed so far, but I also don't like polyester for piecing, because it doesn't ease or stretch the same as cotton.

I learned - the hard way - that if the pieces are the correct size to start with, that easing and stretching do not need to be done as much.

I was using templates that were off by 1/8 of an inch. At that time, I thought that a purchased template "had to be right" - not so! So I was wondering why I almost always had to ease in a certain piece of the block! It never even occurred to me then that the pattern was off. By the way - crossgrain usually stretches more than lengthwise grain.

Thanks for saying that! I could never figure out why I got 1/8" stretch on a 6" piece...now I know why. I'll have to stabilizer the fabric better in the future.

I also agree with feline fanatic. I must be very careful and choosy with poly stuff. My skin can get a severe rash, along with possible blistering. Hence, I love cottons!

if you consider when poly blends came on the market, most people were handquilting? I think poly was harder to use in that instance.

I learned the hard way it is best not to mix cottons with polyesters/poly blends in the same top......especially for quilts that will be washed (lap quilts, table runners, placemats, for example). The difference also shows up during FMQ. However, artistic wall hangings do well with different fabrics and textures.

In regards to the poly/cotton blend question about how it ages, in the mid 60s I used a poly/cotton fabric for the sashing on embroidered and crayoned blocks from the 30s. The background muslin deteriorated from age and use after about 25 -30 years (sometime in the 90s) the poly/cotton sashing was still good.

I suppose this is why we saw so many 'sewn' creases... a tiny topstitch right next to the fold.

We use what we like, discovered through trial and error. I love cotton fabrics. I just don't love the feel or behavior of poly or poly blends. However, my favorite batting is Hobbs 80/20, 20 percent polyester. It still feels like cotton but is just a bit loftier and lighter. I love the weight and loft of it.

Wow! Speaking as someone who only uses cotton in her quilts, YOU ARE A REAL QUILTER. I don't care what fabrics you use.

Okay, that said, there are a few things to consider when selecting fabric:
1) I have seen & carefully studied what has happened to poly-cotton fabrics from 50 years ago. The polyester & cotton fiber eventually start to separate. The polyester is stronger, so it will slightly pull on the cotton over a very long period of time & eventually you will see some of the cotton thread in the fabric start to snap or buckle. I realize that polyester fibers have improved since that time, but it's still going to happen to some extent.
2) Polyester or poly-cotton blends are not recommended for baby quilts because of what happens if they catch on fire. Cotton turns to ash. Poly turns to molten balls of plastic. It typically means the difference between 2nd and 3rd degree burns. (If you use a heating pad while in bed, you also don't want a poly bed quilt.)
3) For longevity, it's generally best to stick with one fiber -- do everything either in only cotton, only wool or only polyester.
4) Polyester fabric & the poly- part of poly-cotton will pill. Cotton doesn't pill.

Polyester is plastic so yes, in a sense it will live forever (just like all those plastic bags floating out in the ocean). But over time with wear-and-tear, stitches will sometimes snap because they seem to bunch up together more in the wash. It seems to be the general consensus that well cared for poly fabrics/threads will last 80 years or so before they start to break down. Well cared for cotton fibers generally start to break down around the 20 year mark.

One other thing... all poly fibers are not the same. I haven't researched them well enough to know how to pick one, but there is information on the web to help understand which types of polyester might be best suited for a bed quilt.

Good luck with your project!

First of all, I don't agree with the premise of your statement. I am a "true quilter" and a "real quilter" (whatever that's supposed to mean) and I use polyester thread. I don't use poly fabric because I personally don't care for it. I find it itchy, hot, sweaty, and in case of fire, it's not the first thing I'd like to have next to my loved ones' skin. That's my opinion and it's worth exactly what you paid for it.

Second of all, there are many, many older quilts where it's been documented that the very first thing to start deteriorating was the cotton thread used to piece and quilt them. The older cotton threads were susceptible to dry rot.

However, technology marches forward, and both cotton and poly have improved over the years. I don't get bothered about whether my quilts will last for a hundred years or not. If they last, they last. If they don't, then more opportunity for me to make new ones to replace the old. :D

As a long time garment maker (who at one time made a lot of double knit clothes! ) but a novice quiltmaker, I inadvertently mixed a poly/cotton with 100% cotton in a quilt when I first began piecing. I was horrified when I realized what I'd done, but my cousin, a long time quilter, told me not to worry, there were "no rules". That top, a queen size and too much of a struggle for my DSM, has yet to be quilted so I have no idea how it will look when finished, but I now buy only 100% cotton for quilt tops. But I do use poly batting, mainly because an experienced online quilter advised using it as the easiest for beginners. I like it. I also use poly/cotton thread for piecing and for machine quilting.

My DM used poly and poly blends in a few of her quilts and the ones I have of her's that she used them in have done very well and are still very pretty. I have never used any in the ones I have done.

My mother used scraps from garment making in her later quilts and they are holding up very well. I do note that some of the poly blends do pill. I also started out using scraps from my own dressmaking as well as those given to me by mother. I try to only use cotton now because, like others have said, it's hard to get a crease in blended material. And cotton really does handle differently than blends. It doesn't 'crawl/slip' like blends do. I have a lap quilt made out of double knit that was given to my step dad approx. 30 years ago and it still looks like it did when it was new and is very warm. I have a full size quilt made out of double knit made by my mother in law - beautiful - looks new ---- but too hot/heavy for me to sleep under. It would be nice at a ball game.