juliasb

I am as careful as I can be with my 1/4" seams, especially on a gift like this. I have already started the replacement quilt. I am thankful I have a good stash to pull from. I will use my 1930 repos for this one too. The green I chose I have already tested for strength and color. On close inspection the fabric is weak on the grain. It will spring ever so lightly, not like on the bias, and not spring back. I will be contacting the company I purchased this fabric from today or Monday. Right now I am more concerned about getting a gift ready for this precious new life.

feline fanatic

The quilt can be saved but not without a lot of work and a lot more quilting to prevent it from happening on other seams. Not sure if it is just the light fabric that is the problem, it doesn't look like the colored fabrics frayed but you may have not posted pics of those areas. If it is just the lights, I echo what others have posted to applique a square of light colored fabric over the frayed areas and then quilt it to death. Heavy quilting will help to stabilize and reinforce the piecing as well as the fabrics. I would probably do back and forth lines in the lights much like I did in this quilt: https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictures-f5/scrappy-batik-hst-quilt-t293883.html and also do a motif that takes up the entire area of the newly appliqued light squares. In the colored areas I would do more quilting with lines (or loops or a meander anything to add more quilting) running perpendicular to the back and forth lines. It might be worth saving and gift to another baby where you don't have a tight deadline. The quilt is way too cute to trash.

Iceblossom

What a shame. Applique over the seams of some sort would be the best fix at this point.

The "useful but not fit" solution for me would be to put strips of fusible interfacing into the exploded area and fuse it down and then do a zigzag or decorative stitch over the fused areas. The other saved but not good option would be to put ribbon over it and stitch that down.

With those fabrics, maybe a rick-rack would look cute over the whole thing, you might have to take off the binding and redo it but that would be relatively fast. I would sew over both sides of the rick-rack, even with just a half inch width for the reinforcing.

nativetexan

maybe applique a circle over that one and as others say, maybe large ric rack or more stitching near all those seams.

Jordan

I feel so bad for you. By the way the pictures show the place that has come apart looks like it is the seams. Did you sew with a basting stitch by error? I know this as I have done this to a quilt that I was working on. I would contact the place you purchased your new fabric from and make them aware of the quality of the fabric. You might feel better by just making a new baby quilt. The quilt you made is so pretty-can you replace the fabrics that you used with different fabrics with better quality? Good luck to you

Barb in Louisiana

So sorry this happened to you. I had a similar problem with a loosely woven fabric that I saw was fraying very badly as soon as I started sewing it together. I ended up stitching all the seams with a 1.8 stitch length for the straight seam and then running a wavy seam in the seam allowance. Yes, that was a lot of fun, but it worked. No more fraying and the quilt has been washed a lot. Right now, I think I would zig zag over all the frayed seams and edges in your quilt top and give it to someone as a pet bed. It will be appreciated and loved and you can move on.

After that fiasco, I changed my stitch for all fabrics to 2.0 for all straight piecing. I still use 1.6 for all my paper piecing.

The other option would be to trim down all the frayed edges as much as possible and if you have enough of the original fabric, then turn the edges under and do a machine applique over all the seams. That would be a pain for me and would be less likely to happen than making it into a pet bed.

Another option is to go over each of the other seams for this fabric with a tight zig zag and do a balloon or baby doll or some other cute applique over the ones that have already caused the problem. I've seen some cute paint splats on quilts. Good luck with whatever method you choose.

PamelaOry

So sorry this happened to you! Did it only happen where you have that particular fabric? I too, want to know where you got the fabric although I think I might be able to guess.

juliasb

The fabric also failed in other places than the seams. I just didn't take more pictures. I have not touched the length of my stitching so I didn't go into any basting mode. As far as fabrics go, I have already started another quilt and I should be alright. I am saddened that I have to do this but perfection is important. As others have stated it is not a loss as this quilt can be used for other things. Just a bit heartbreaking.

TeresaA

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

To me, it looks like fabric that pulled due to uneven shrinkage. It looks like flannel, and yep, flannel can tear when that happens. I would start over, and prewash the fabrics -- several times if it's flannel -- before making the quilt.

This is why when people say they don't prewash, I do that Lucille Ball grimace (eeeeee ;-)). You can go 100 times without this happening and then one day....best to at least attempt to get all fabrics on the same shrinkage "page" by prewashing.....

TeresaA

If the fabric failed another thing you can do is contact the manufacturer. Sometimes they will replace it, depending on who it is. If the fabric is branded, it's the same quality no matter where you bought it. But sometimes the batch can be bad.