Lining white fabric to prevent shadowing?
 

Has anyone lined white fabrics to prevent shadowing? What type of fabric did you use? I'm considering using very thin muslin but I'd love suggestions and tips from anyone who has dealt with this.

I've read that using bright white batting versus cream will also camouflage shadowing. Any recommendations for white batting, please? One project will be a table runner and the other will be a bed quilt.

I've used white Warm and Natural cotton batting. Maybe it's called Warm and White?

I've also used "thicker" white cotton that's less see-throughy for the white.

Some white on white prints also seem to limit shadowing.

I think a loose lining would just be one more thing to rumple. Maybe a super-thin fusible?

Pressing 'to the dark side" limits some shadowing. When sewing a dark to a light/white , I have the white stick out a couple of threads from the dark, so after the piece is pressed, the dark side is covered.

Are you talking about in a quilt? You could probably use a double thickness of whatever white fabric you are using while piecing, but I'm not sure how easy that would be to do. If you are talking about lining a whole quilt top with white fabric, I agree with Bear that it would just be something else to have to keep flat. I guess you could spray baste it to the top. I have no idea how that would work or how difficult it would be to do.

I’ve used a white fabric behind my embroidery.

I agree with bearisgray's comments.

I use Warm and White if the quilt has larger white chunks in it and when possible I will press to the dark. If I am nesting seams and press to the light, I will often trim the dark seam allowance by a "smidge" so that it does not show.

My only thought/concern about two layers is that, depending on the block, your seam intersections could be too bulky.

I have never given shadowing much of a thought. When sewing very dark fabric to a white fabric I always press to the dark. Other than that I've never noticed once the quilt is quilted.

I think shadowing might be one reason some quilters press their seams open. I’ve done it on a couple of small projects, but mostly I like pressing to the dark side as much as possible. For me, pressing seams open is tedious because I’m not used to it😂.

What you use sort of depends on the results you want. I have lined or doubled fabric before, I have a partial bolt of a very thin bleached muslin I use, I have also used poly blend batiste. Sometimes if I want to use a particular fabric for something but it is a "craft" and not a "quilting" level piece of fabric, I will line it just so when/if the original fabric wears away, the muslin will be there to at least hold everything together.

Keep in mind that just like for many of us when wearing white pants, neutral off/white is often better for disappearing than bright white. But maybe bright white gives you the effect you want.

I have a project where I have a set of 1970s cross stitched blocks on a terrible fabric :( For that I'm going to prequilt the blocks down to sized scraps of warm and natural and do close up work around the cross stitch, then put it all together with wide sashing (with no W&N) and then a full layer of thin batting, the quilting design will run in and out of the border and tie into the blocks. Have debated about just lining but there are about 80 zillion issues, one of which even though the design were prestamped, the blocks are warped and not consistently sized.

I have used cheaper white or off-white cotton on some special white/off-white blocks to prevent shadowing. If I am using an off-white in my quilt (like Kona snow) I generally use an off-white batting. That helps a lot. Likewise, if I use a true white in my blocks, I will either line those blocks with an additional layer of cheaper white cotton and/or make sure my batting is actually white. I don't use muslin, as I have found the coarse weave of a lot of muslin for backing has shown up at times through the white fabric in the block.

When I was making valances for my sunroom, basement, kitchen and garages, I just used white muslin to line them with. This also hid any seams also. They've been up in the windows for at least 7 years and those that get the south sun have never shown any fading whatsoever.