delicate fabrics?
 

Hey all, as I posted over in my intro I'm from KY but my hubby (of nearly 24 yrs!) is originally from India. His mother passed away suddenly last year, his sisters were wanting to give away most of her clothes but she had some amazing pieces that I requested to keep. My family tradition is to make quilts out of old clothes, not just to re-use but also as a remembrance. I'd like to do something similar, she had some things with lovely embroidery (some probably hand-worked), but as you may imagine the fabrics are all over the place.

I asked a quilting enthusiast club in the nearest big city (Dubai), the woman I spoke with suggested it might be possible to use these fabrics if I fused them to some kind of interfacing? Well I'm back home in KY for a visit; I headed over this morning to JoAnn's to see what was available and there are shelves of what looked to me to be fusible backing fabric of all different kinds... I was totally lost!

So I'm looking for advice.. is this a project even to take on, or should I try to come up with something else to do with these?

Here are a couple of pics of what I was able to save:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]598218[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]598219[/ATTACH]

So, different kinds of fabrics, different weights, and only one or two seem to be cotton of the type that I typically associate with quilting.

I think for a design I have decided on something simpler, like this Indian quilt:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]598220[/ATTACH]

Any thoughts, ideas or advice would be fantastic.. I'm here in the US until mid-August, better if I get any materials while I'm here than try to find them there, or worse have them shipped and pay a bazillion dollars in delivery fees. lol

Thanks in advance for any help!

Kate

I bought but haven't used yet some Pellon fusible interfacing 906f for a t-shirt quilt I'll be doing. It is very lightweight so won't add a lot of weight to a quilt. I think it might work well for your project.

Some of your fabrics look very fragile so a heavier(thicker) interfacing might work better to stabilize it for a long time.

They are so pretty - I think I would just look at them for a while.

Maybe you could find some similar fabrics/garments that had no sentimental value and experiment on them?

Are you able to wear any of the garments?

Or use them as scarves?

If the sisters wanted to give the clothes away, then I would feel okay with keeping the garments I have all for myself.

The first thing you need to figure out is if you want to make functional quilts that will be used as quilts or quilted wallhangings you can make for each family member as a remembrance. I honestly think some of those gorgeous pieces are only suited for the latter, especially the sparkly ones with many sequins. You also need to figure out if the sari fabric can take the heat from the iron to fuse the interface. I believe most sari are made from cotton but many are more like gauze type fabric. They should be ok. Where you can run into trouble are the embroidered fabrics as you have no way of knowing what the thread was made of. I would bet it is a mixed bag of silk, rayon and other synthetics. Then there are the sparkly bits, the sequins and such which probably will have no tolerance for the heat, even low heat.

If I were going to attempt this, rather than a fusible interface I would use starch. You can easily make your own out of corn starch or you can buy Sta-Flo liquid starch. But that would be a pain to transport back to UAE. I would research making your own and make it heavy so the fabrics once dipped and dried are as stiff as card stock. Then you can easily cut your squares, sew them together with no worries of stretching and the starch will make all the fabrics behave like they are same weight. Once your piece is all done layered and quilted you can dunk it in cold water to dissolve the starch. The only drawback to this method, is you may not have a functional (utilitarian) quilt when done.

Another option is to separate the ones that are questionable about handling heat. I bet you have enough that you could test each piece. Then use the ones that can tolerate heat and buy pellon 911FF fusible featherweight interfacing made for light and delicate fabrics or JoAnnes equivalent store brand, which is much less expensive but also not quite as nice quality as the Pellon name brand. That should stabilize it enough but keep in mind the interfacing will add weight to the final quilt as well as your beautiful sari fabric may lose some of its drape but you will have a utilitarian quilt that will stand up to normal use and washing. Save the real pretty sparkly ones for throw pillows or wallhangings.

Welcome to the board and I hope you come back to show us what you made of these stunningly beautiful saris.

Speaking of home made starch, here is a topic that just got posted!
https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...h-t298421.html

I, too, am concerned about the heat required to fuse the interfacing. Personally, I would purchase a lightweight neutral colored fabric, either a cotton or a poly lining and line each block before assembly. Just cut the lining (prewashed) the same size as the quilt square and zigzag them together with a very long stitch. Be sure the pretty side of the fabric is on top. Then you can treat it as one fabric and make your quilt the way you wish. You might need 3/8" seams to allow the zz to be inside the seam line.

I agree with Irishrose2..........beautiful delicate fabrics, I'm afraid the heat of the iron would ruin them. Post your results please.

Very pretty fabrics. If they are silky I would use a cool iron, hot would melt them.

I use fusible knit interfacing for delicate fabrics (also called tricot interfacing). Use a pressing cloth, either muslin or parchment paper.

You could use the cotton as IrishRose2 mentioned and even do a crazy quilt, mixing the smaller pieces (maybe left over) to make it. Then you could use some embroidery stitches and add to it. That way the cotton underneath the fancy fabric would hold it all together. I would love to see a crazy quilt made out of all those fabrics. Good luck!