Flowergurl

My son was a toddler and he kept stomping one foot and fussing.
I took his shoe and sock off and found a thread from his sock had wrapped around his little toe
and was hurting it. Luckily no permanent damage was done.

mojo11

Thanks for the "heads up".

Candace

The cut fabric frays and creates fuzz, long threads or pulled fabric pieces that can choke a baby and get wrapped around fingers.

Bree123

What Candace said. The whole point of a rag quilt is for it to fray. Unless you're going to the put Fray Block on every bit of raw edge (which, by the way, I recommend against), the quilt is going to fray both with use & laundering. All it takes is a single thread the length of their pinky finger to wrap itself around a toe or finger tight enough to cut off circulation.

I really try not to give in to all the insane hype out there about the 50 million dangers to babies, but this one actually seems rather legit. It happens both with regular cotton thread & with mono or any of the other synthetics. When we use 40wt or heavier, it's usually very noticeable. When we use silk, mono or another thread that is very thin (like human hair), it can get tightly wrapped around the finger/toe & be partially hidden by the folds of skin/fat spilling over the location of the thread tourniquet. For that reason, I limit all raw edges & if I have one, I make sure to add a blanket/decorative stitch at least every 1/8".

bearisgray

From what I've seen of rag quilts - if the seams are clipped to the stitching - the longest thread that might shed might be about 1/2 inch.

MargeD

It is good for you to point that out Jan. I have even gotten tangled in the invisible threads in my comforter, so it is something to be concerned about; and I'm many, many years away from being a baby.

Candace

To each their own. I prefer not to take chances and piece all my baby quilts. BTW my accuquilt rag dies are much longer than 1/2".