bearisgray

If this fabric is giving you problems now - think what it might be doing five years from now after some use and a few washings.

I agree that it would be a big undertaking to pick it apart at this stage and replace the problem fabric - but do you want to deal with it for the life of the quilt?

117becca

Go to Joann's and get some Fray-Check. It is clear liquid and spread it on the place(s) that is raveling. It will stiffen things up and then maybe you can fix the area. It wont wash out - like glue might.

Girlfriend

Try emailing the photo to yourself and saving that version, then uploading. Emailing it automatically resizes it, if you send it from iPhoto.

Prism99

Not sure without seeing the quilt, but I think this is what I would do. When you come to an unravelling place, stop and remove some of the stitches. Slip a piece of lightweight fusible underneath, hand sew the seam closed, and use an iron to lightly heat the area to activate the fusible. I would use an ultra lightweight fusible. Pellon has some. MistyFuse would probably work too.

If your design allows it, hand quilting on both sides of the fraying seams will help stabilize them too.

For particularly bad spots, perhaps you can add an applique on top of the area to strengthen it. Alternatively, for a bad spot, remove and replace the fabric with a stronger one (sewing the seams by hand).

Fray Check dries hard. There is another product called Fray Block that is more flexible when dry. You could try putting a line of Fray Block along the seam on the fabric that is fraying; however, I doubt that would be enough by itself to stand up to the wear and tear a quilt takes.

KalamaQuilts

If it is consistant across the quilt on those fabrics it may be thin material plus hot iron and poly thread = melted seams.
Do you remember what you used?

If the pieces are coming apart across the fabric so small of a seam allowance could be it.

best wishes on a solution!

cathyvv

The fabric may not have been cheap in the sense of price. I bought a charcoal fabric from a LQS at full price that raveled so badly that my 1/4" seams were disappearing as I sewed. It had a good 'hand', but was awful to use. That did not make me happy at all.
The other two fabrics, bought on sale at Walmart, did not ravel at all - thus cheap in price, but perfect for use.

Some fabrics just ravel badly, no matter what the price.

MadQuilter

Did you check the seams before you layered the quilt? It is possible that the seam slipped on one side and there just wasn't enough to hold the two pieces together. I make it a point to check ALL my seams as I go so that won't happen. You could carefully rip a slightly larger opening and put a piece of iron-on interfacing underneath. (It's a bit fiddely but worth the effort. Make sure that you get the seams turned under properly. After you iron the seam shut, use some tiny slip stitches to secure the seam again from the top.

Paula Fullager

How do you "check" your seams. I don't think I have ever done this, but would like to know. Thanks.

linynp

I had this happen and I got lucky. On one I hand stitched it and made sure there was quilting over it to reinforce the area. The other I appliqués over since the hand stitching didn't go so well. Good luck!

feline fanatic

You simply inspect them by looking at them, both sides. How many times have we all sewn a seam only to take it off the machine and find the fabric that was on the bottom slipped and you only caught a few threads of it. That is what madquilted meant by "check your seams", Inspect, look ensure you have a good seam. It happens to the best of us.