Your opinion on binding fabric, please
 

I'm working on a T shirt quilt for someone and I am trying to keep the budget down, so I have been very careful with fabric quantities, just getting enough for the various components, with none to spare! And the fabrics we've gone with for sashing, borders and backing are all flannels, which has led to its own issues...but that's another story.

I am pondering using some of the blank backs from the shirts as binding material. I have a ton of black shirts, all good quality, heavyweight knits. Has anyone used these as binding before? Was their insane stretchiness an issue? Should I stabilize them with fusible first? I'm thinking they would wear well...certainly better than the shirt-weight flannel I am using for the backing!

Any ideas?

Thanks.
Alison

I think I would make up a sample piece and give it a try. That way you can find out how the fabrics work together and how they respond to being used as a binding. Anytime I'm going outside of my comfort zone I do a sample first. Let us know what you decide to do.

I gave the backs of t-shirt quilts to a neighbor who cleans houses for a living. Your are going to end up with a heavy quilt with the weight of the t-shirts and flannel. I have always done the double fold with my binding and I can't imagine how you could use such a stretchy fabric and get nice looking binding. I know what it is when you are dealing with a very tight budget. I wish you the best of luck.

Do you have enough scraps to make a scrappy binding of quilting cottons, and would that look okay with the quilt top? It usually takes less than a yard to make a binding, even for a very large quilt. I think that might work better than the t-shirt fabrics, and it would take less time.

I think I'll try erstan947's idea of making a practice sandwich. I am on a tight budget financially, but a loose budget for time! The quilt is for a very manly man, so I'm going with stark bold things, and I don't think (given the scraps I have) I can make it work with a scrappy binding. Also, the flannel for the backing is shirt weight, and somewhat loosely woven, so I'd be afraid as binding it would wear through pretty quickly - I know this quilt will be in daily use, and not folded neatly on a shelf...

I'll report back when I've tried my various experiments. Won't be for a few weeks, probably.

Alison

I think if you put a lightweight stabilizer on the nit binding it would work great. Your idea is a good one. Do a small test to be sure of it.
peace