Unraveling after sewing
 

I've prewashed fabrics my daughter chose for a large log cabin quilt. She asked if she could pick any kind of fabric, not just cotton, and I told her "if you choose it I'll sew it." I'm regretting that a little because she chose several very silky polyester type fabrics that washed fine and went through the dryer fine, but they unravel if you just look at them. I'm worried that they might unravel through the seam after being pieced into the blocks for the quilt. Do I have to zig zag the seams that involve these fabrics or finish them in any way? Or do I need worry about this at all? Too late to cut on the bias if that is what I should have done - the pieces are already cut. Thanks for advice from anyone who has had experience quilting with these fabrics that unravel very easily.

Wondering if you could iron on a light weight stabilizer???

How about applying some Fray Block? I've used with success.

I would second the featherweight iron on. In addition to keeping them from fraying, the stabilizer will also keep the poly from stretching and add some weight to make it closer to the thickness of the cottons.
Just make sure the iron on can be used at a temperature that will work with the poly.

Replace it or you might regret it, then you have big problems! Just sayin'

i've made a few baby quilts of symphony satin & lace, lace inserts for my grand daughters & friends' babies. all have held up well. the only ones i probably should have worried about were those for my little angels, the exdil washes everything to the point of destruction, but all of thier quilts are still doing well. ex dil complained about the first satin quilt, said she didn't "want to have to take care of 'heirlooms' until the kids grew up!" i said great! because i don't make 'heirlooms'. when the babies become toddlers their pretty little satin & lace confections can become drag around quilts, then they can become toy quilts for their dolls. use everything i make and enjoy. nothing needs to be saved. the satin quilts have not frayed, the lace is intact & so is the ribbon. with the satin & lace i pin like crazy, shorten the stitch length & use clothing style 5/8" seams. a student of mine many years ago wanted to make a quilt with brocade samples & remnants from a fabric store. we made a beautiful quilt but we had to use fray check due to the multilayered weave.

According to a Fons and Porter show I watched somewhat recently, you can use any kind of fabric in any kind of quilt. Stabilizing and iron temperature are important considerations, as well as which sewing machine needles to use. You can probably check out their website for reference to the program.

It's episode 2803,ifyou're interested.You can stream it live, whatever that means!

You can use a serger to make the quilt. I took a class with Eleanor Burns and we used sergers to complete the entire quilt top.

I starch all my fabrics before I cut as that seems to help with any fraying. If I know this fabric frays alot I'll cut the strips using my pinking shear blade. That seems to be how you find most of your pre-cuts these days.

Another idea is to apply FABRIC Mod Podge to the back of the fabric- just a light layer. It stops it from fraying and still leaves a soft hand. It's usually done for fabric applique, but don't see why it wouldn't work on that fabric. You let it air dry for 45 minutes, then use. Only the FABRIC one will work- any other kind will turn your fabric into vinyl!

I have had regular cotton quilting fabric fray very badly. Later, I realized that the weave was way too loose. I tamed the problem by sewing 2 seams each time. One was the regular 1/4" seam and the next was a 1/8" from the outside. I, also, shortened up the stitch length and I always use a 50 wt thread. I made sure the block was going to be the right size before I sewed the second 1/8" stitch. I did not make sure I stayed a true 1/8" because I wanted it to vary so I didn't loose any more threads from the fabric. My machine has an over edge stitch similar to a serger, but the fraying stopped with the second seam.

I agree with the lightweight stabilizers.

Why on earth would you agree to work with polyester? You won't be able to press those non-cotton fabrics the same as the cottons. Good luck.

Let me be the voice of experience for you here! I used one fabric in a quilt for my daughter that seemed inclined to fray when I was working with it. Later on, every seam with that fabric in it frayed past the seam line in the quilt and was a big mess! I had to hand sew repairs all over the quilt where that fabric was.
Luckily it was a quilt for family and not one that was gifted out!!! I would definitely either use fray stop or some other type of treatment on the edges, or I would iron it to a backing of some sort. In some places that fabric frayed out over 3/8".
Now if I have fabric that seems to fray, either I don't use it, or I seal the edges. By the way, my fabric was also cotton, but not tightly woven enough.

All you have to do is use a short stitch, and stitch around anything you fear might fray. I do this when I get a quilt top dirty and must wash it before I iron it...I use glue sticks a lot and any excess glue just draws dirt..I',m afraid to iron the top for fear of setting in the stains.....but if you stitch around it, it won't ever fray.

In addition to using a light weight stabilizer to prevent raveling, you might try sewing a straight line around the pieces. I know that is a lot of extra work, however, when I first started sewing my clothing and the fabrics back then raveled a lot, so I sewed around each piece, which kept the fabric from fraying, as the stitching stopped the fraying when it met the stitching. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished quilt.

Sounds like this will be a learning experience.

If you have any scraps, use them to try out these treatments.

Thank you all so much for the wonderful suggestions. I have pinking shears and iron-on stabilizer and can get some Fray Block at my local Joann's. I think it will be worthwhile watching the Fons and Porter video first, then doing some experimenting to see which will work best for me. It occurred to me in the middle of the night last night (as most of the most interesting thoughts do) that even if I got these silky pieces sewn into the blocks, and I was confident they wouldn't fray on the inside over time, I could get to the quilting part of the process only to find that quilting on this fabrics pulls threads or whatever, so I'll make a few practice blocks and quilt them before I get serious putting this thing together. Thank you again for all the great suggestions. If I remember, I'll come back and let you know how this experimenting worked out.

I agreed because my daughter loves texture and wanted some in her quilt. When she asked I told her "you pick it out and I'll use it." We did throw one choice out because it wouldn't stop bleeding in the prewash, even after about 10 soakings in a bucket of water. I made sure everything she chose holds up under a cotton setting on my iron as well as washing in hot water and going through a hot dryer. I think some of the non-cotton fabrics are pretty sturdy these days. A couple of her choices looked like some kind of faux suede, and I must admit these odd fabrics do look beautiful in the layout stage so far.

What happened to you is exactly what I'm worried about - fraying past the seam line after the quilt is finished.

For what it's worth, from all the suggestions and after watching the video I decided on the featherweight fusible interfacing made by Pellon. I've cut strips of it just a tad narrower than the 1/4" seams I'm using for piecing, and I'm applying the stuff to the seam allowances as I go. It's working beautifully even after I did a trial block and put it through the washer and dryer on my hottest settings. It isn't coming off even after picking at it with my fingernail pretty aggressively. Certainly no unraveling is taking place. Wouldn't work for a fabric that won't withstand a steam iron set on the normal cotton setting for 10 seconds, but the fabrics I'm using are all undergoing that just fine - I'm actually using a damp pressing cloth rather than the steam setting.

A fusible interfacing/ stabilizer will make those fabrics behave. Makes cutting easier and keeps the edges from fraying.

I think you will regret using the difficult fraying fabric, I would replace them with something that does not ravel.