Suitable Fabric for English Paper Piecing
How to Choose Fabrics which are Easy to Use in Patchwork
Jun 16, 2009
The easiest type of fabric to use for English paper piecing is dress weight cotton. It has been shown to have good wearing qualities with quite a number of quilts having survived which are well over 100 years old. A visit to any specialist museum such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York or the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, both of which have collections of quilts, will reveal that a substantial number of the patchwork tops are made of cotton.
Using Scraps in Patchwork
Of course patchwork has always meant thrift and therefore the use of scraps. While it is fun to use dressmaking remnants if you have access to these, be sure that all fabrics to go into the quilt have been well washed before cutting and sewing. Some may shrink more than others and it's important to avoid as many nasty surprises as possible.
Washing the fabrics beforehand will help the worker to spot any problems with non colourfast dyes. It's also important to ensure that scrap fabrics are not badly worn. Badly worn fabrics should be discarded as they will wear out long before the rest of the quilt. It's really best to use all new fabrics in any patchwork quilt top, as this will ensure even wearing quality throughout the life of the finished quilt.
Using Silks, Wools and Velvets in Patchwork
Many patchworkers become aware that English paper pieced patchwork can often be made from other fabrics besides cotton. Historically this depends as much on what was available in the household's scrap bag as the period in which the quilt was made.
Late 19th century quilts were often made of wool, and the heavily embellished crazy quilts would include everything from silk and velvet to cottons. Some fine examples can be seen in Averil Colby's book Patchwork, published in 1959 and reprinted several times in the 1970s and '80s. Sadly, this is long out of print but it is fairly readily available secondhand at reasonable prices and remains about the best book on hand sewing English style patchwork that there is.
Should Polycotton be used in Patchwork?
The answer is, it depends. The quilt in the illustration above contains several polyester cotton mixes which have worn well over a period of around ten years of daily use (the quilt was finished in 1998 and took eight years to sew, but some of the prints date back to the early '80s). An earlier quilt by the author of this article contains a bigger selection of cotton polyester mixes simply because pure cotton fabrics were not easily available at the time it was made.
It too has worn well but both quilts contained all new fabrics at the time they were made. Using pure cottons only for the top and backing of a quilt can provide a uniform handle but sometimes polyester cotton prints will give an added colour not available any other way. It's really up to the worker.
How to Find Suitable Cotton Fabric for Patchwork
Thanks to the proliferation of online and local specialist quilt shops in the late 1980s and 1990s, good quality cottons are now readily available. The variety of patterned fabrics and selection of plain colours is enormous and most of these shops will have staff happy to advise on colour and fabric selection where this proves difficult. The simplest thing to start with, however, is a collection of small prints and plain fabrics, possibly from one of the numerous packs of fat quarters and smaller offcuts available.
It's also worth watching dressmaking fabric shops as they will sometimes have bolts of cotton fabrics on sale very cheaply. The beginner therefore should have no problems at all obtaining good quality cotton fabrics which will be a pleasure to work with.
 |
