Mixing fabric types in a quilt

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

Hello Professor! I just found you and I am excited since I can learn so much from you. I am a self taught quilter. I have made 8 quilts in the past 9 months all by watching YouTube videos. All are gifts and I am quite proud. I have been asked to make a “memory quilt” for a family using the Mom and Dad’s clothing. The men’s shirts are 100% polyester and the women’s clothing is a stretchy knit kind of fabric. I just don’t think I can use either one with cotton fabric. Please enlighten me. I was thinking of making “flowers” out of those fabrics so that am only using a small amount of the polyester and knit fabrics on the quilt….I would appliqué those pieces onto the quilt. Am I correct? Any other ideas? Can I make a pieced quilt out of polyester shirts alone? Everything I read says I can’t. Thank you so very much.

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

Well, I guess it would just depend on whether this is going to be something that’s just going to be on display or it’s actually going to be used and washed. If it’s just going to hang on a wall, then you probably have a lot more leeway. People have made t-shirt quilts before so it’s not out of the question, but I’m pretty sure you’ll have to use a knit stabilizer with it or the fabric can get frustrating to sew with. I do love your idea of perhaps just using the fabric for applique. That’s very creative! And the fusible webbing should keep stretchy fabrics in check. I would be careful with the polyester as it can’t handle too high a heat so I would practice to make sure you can fuse it with the webbing and it seems ok. I’d love to see a picture when you finish! 🙂

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