| Prism99 |
01-18-2014 11:54 AM |
The triangle thing never worked for me.
I highly recommend using starch instead of a lightweight fusible before cutting. I use a 1:1 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water, "paint" this on the yardage with a large wall painting brush, wait a couple of minutes to ensure the starch has penetrated fabric fibers, toss in the dryer, and iron with steam. This make the flannel very stable and easy to cut and piece with accuracy. Of course, you would do this after your last preshrinking wash/dry. A huge advantage over interfacing is that the starch washes out and leaves the flannel with its original softness.
It's a very good idea to use 1/2" seams with flannel.
It's actually possible to use unwashed flannel in a quilt as long as the quilting is moderately close together. Once quilted, even flannel cannot shrink more than the batting allows. This does *not* work if quilting lines are far apart. If your quilting lines will be more than 3" apart, definitely prewash the flannel.
I once took a class from Harriet Hargrave, and she brought a flannel quilt with her to prove it works. It was all unwashed flannel. She measured the quilt before washing and after washing, and it shrank the amount that the batting (Hobbs80/20) was expected to shrink. She had used a moderately close meander on the quilt.
Edit: For washing flannel yardage, it's a good idea to sew or serge along the cut edges to prevent ravelling. It's also a good idea to fold the yardage into large accordion pleats and use large safety pins to keep the folds in place. This keeps the yardage from twisting around on itself.
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