rj.neihart

Beautiful silk! Love the embroidery! I was blessed with 150 silk scarves, from a friend who collected them for 60 years! I hand washed each one, air dried, and decided to make a few quilts. Some of these scarves came from other countries, with absolutely gorgeous designs. It took 9 scarves to make a large quilt top - then I hand quilted. I will admit, it was a challenge and I worried constantly about snagging the fabric. I took my time, and it came out beautiful! I wanted to keep each design original, this was my reason for not cutting the designs out of each scarf. I had to make sure the quilted stitches were about an inch apart, as I was afraid the scarves would shrink when washed in the machine. They all came out fantastic, and I couldn't see any new shrinkage. I used clear thread for the quilting. This is the warmest quilt we have!

Limey

You are from the UK? Contact the Victoria and Albert Museum; they will know how to preserve the fabric. I agree with others;not at all suitable for a child's quilt; too precious and too vulnerable. Also, colors unlikely to be fast.

SharonTheriault

Tell her to take it to a framer, picture framer, and have them mount it on acid free mat board, then have uv glass mounted in the frame. It will not be inexpensive, but will be the best way to preserve the dress. THEN make her a quilt out of fabric she picks out.

lfstamper

What if you printed fabric from the pics to use in the quilt itself and framed the real thing to preserve it for the family. Just a thought. This is too precious to use for a child's quilt.

running1

wow... the embroidery is beautiful! I don't have the answers you need, but will be watching this thread! I imagine the little black spots along the bottom of the hem might be old mold... the dress may have gotten wet?

One idea might be to check at a university that offers fashion design? There could be a fabric expert who could help?

MaggieLou

No way would I make a quilt from this, especially for a child. The fabric is too fragile. You might suggest displaying the dress as a wall hanging. We had a friend that did that with a kimino and it was very pretty. She just put a dowel rod through the arm holes and hung it on the wall.

moreland

Perhaps she is thinking in terms of a wall hanging type quilt--I really do not think you could expect that fabric to withstand repeated washing that a "drag around" baby quilt would require. Just a thought.

abc123retired

I agree with this. Much to fragile to work with.

Deborahlees

A wall hanging for sure.....

countryone77

I agree with the rest, this garment is too fragile and precious to cut up for a child's quilt.

One possibility would be to take pictures of portions of the garment and print them on an injket fabric sheet. For a child, cotton would probably be best, but silk could also be used. Here are some that I quickly found -- I'm sure that there are many others ...

http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/Printing/Fabric.asp

http://www.dharmatrading.com/info/ijf.html

http://www.jacquardproducts.com/prod...nkjet/habotai/

http://www.dickblick.com/products/ja...ckw=64929-1000