All You Want to Know About Fabric and a Little More

Differences in Fabric Quality

You’ll probably notice quite a difference in the price of fabric depending on whether you are buying from a specialty quilt fabric store or a discount sewing store. What makes some fabrics cost more?

The differences begin with the base fabric, called “griege” goods. Griege is pronounced “gray”. The quality of the griege is based on thread count and thread weight. A high quality fabric will have a thread count of 75 and a thread weight of 30 or 34. The thread count is the number of threads in an inch of fabric. A less expensive fabric will often be made with a greige base with a thinner weight and lower thread count. Consequently the lower quality fabric will not hold up well with wear and washing.

The Cranston fabric manufacturer provides a great look at How Fabric is Made.

You will be able to feel a noticeable difference between a high quality fabric and a lower quality. The higher quality fabrics will often be softer and silkier and you will not be able to see through them. A lower quality fabric will often be stiff or thin to the touch. The colors will be more vivid and vibrant and will not be as likely to run as lower quality fabrics. An exception would be with some batiks - it often takes several washings to soften and eliminate dyes, due to the process the fabric goes through.

A higher quality fabric also has a consistent and balanced weave. This will eliminate excessive and uneven shrinkage.

The higher thread count in the fabric will prevent your batting from bearding through the fabric when you are quilting. You will find as a hand quilter, that a higher quality fabric will be easier to quilt.

With all the time and love you put into your quilt, reward yourself with quality fabrics, and be sure your quilt will be around to pass down through the generations.

Fabric Grain Lines

If Home Economics wasn’t your strong suit, here’s a quick and dirty run-down on fabric grain lines!

The Straight of Grain (or warp) runs parallel to your selvage. It indicates the direction of the yarns. A cut from this direction will have very little stretch and is good for your borders.

The Cross Grain (or weft) are the yarns that run across your fabric from selvage to selvage and are woven to create the fabric. The cross grain has more stretch and give.

The Bias is on a 45 degree angle to the straight of grain. This is best for any place you need stretch and give. You will find this useful in bias bindings, especially very curved bindings.

Washing and Steam Ironing your fabrics

Washing your fabric before quilting is one of those somewhat controversial subjects. Your decision to wash and remove the chemicals from your fabric, pre-shrink and remove excess dyes, can also result in your fabric losing it’s new crisp feel and in some cases, the sheen.

I tend to wash all my fabrics before use. By removing the chemicals, your are also prolonging the life of your fabrics and beautiful heirloom quilts. Chemicals will tend to break down the fibers of your fabric and cause damage over time.

If your quilt is to be laundered anyway, there is no reason to not wash ahead of cutting your fabrics. You may as well remove excess dyes that could seep into other areas of your quilt.

My tip on washing long lengths of fabric is to fold the piece into approximate 3 ft sections, and then safety pin along one selvage edge to hold it all together. Then go ahead and throw it into the washing machine and dryer. You will save yourself the time and frustration of pulling a tangled wad of thread and fabric out of the dryer that would have taken a lot of power ironing to fix!

An alternative to washing your fabric before using would be to steam iron. This choice is suitable for someone who would like to create a wall hanging or other project that is not likely to need washing. If you steam iron your fabric, you will still shrink the cotton before use, without loosing the sheen.