Marcia_PA

My DIL surprised me when they visited at Christmas by bringing her wedding dress (already cut up) and veil and asked me to make a quilt/wall hanging for her daughter's first birthday in March. The dress is satin, the veil is tulle and there is an overskirt that is, maybe, chiffon. All the fabrics are plain with no embroidery except the veil which has seashell buttons sewn on it and has a tiny pearl edging. She didn't keep the buttonholes/fastening section of the gown, which would have been nice to use.

I think she wants a crazy quilt, because she talked about cutting the fabric into different shapes, but we didn't discuss it for long (two little kids running around). I told her I would run my ideas by her as I worked on the project. I am thinking of making 8" finished squares and maybe a sashing of yellow satin (the bridesmaid's dress /groom's tie color).

I have done a little reading online and bought some supplies, including white muslin for the foundation fabric, 70/10 sewing machine needles, sharp pins for pinning and fine gauge thread. I am going to try the different embroidery-type stitches using white thread on my Janome 6600 for embellishing as well as sewing on buttons from the dress. I will definitely be making a sample block first before proceeding with a lot of cutting.

All my quilt-making experience has been with cotton fabrics, so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

PaperPrincess

Crazy quilting is very forgiving in that there's no pattern so you don't have to be worried about one block matching the next. The only thing I would suggest is you might want to use a light weight iron on interfacing on the satin to keep it from fraying. You can also try using a wider seam when you attach the satin pieces. The other thing is depending on the fabric content, pin holes and needle holes won't go away on the satin, so you may need to pin in the seams. Try a small sample to see.

Marcia_PA

Thanks for the reminder about the pin holes--I had read that but forgot already! Maybe tomorrow I'll start by cutting a few pieces of fabric to work with. At least I won't feel the trepidation of actually having to take apart her dress

IAmCatOwned

The biggest problem you will have, IMHO, is working with slippery fabrics. You might want to check out some of the sewing boards and find out how different people handle slippery fabrics.

ragamuffin

Somewhere on here is a darling quilt/wallhanging that was made with the lace, etc. I think it was with some pink which you could sub the yellow for. It was so cute but I don't know if I saved it. Maybe someone else saw it and can direct it to you. Best of luck with the project.

mom-6

The main thing to remember when working with satin and other slippery fabric is be sure to have wider than usual seams because fraying can be a real problem.

Marcia_PA

Thanks for your suggestions. I will practice with one block and see how it goes. I printed out an 8 inch crazy quilt block template but maybe it's bigger than I want. Perhaps I'll start practicing with 6 inch finished size block.