T-Shirt Quilts - Interfacing/Stabilizers???

I love scanning the internet to find new products, new fabrics, etc.  But learning to quilt via the internet is not all it is cracked up to be.  Don't get me wrong - there are LOTS of good things out there.  Great YouTube videos that take you step by step through the quilting process, etc.  But just like the commercial on TV where the good looking girl is waiting for her date who she met on the internet and is a European model (NOT), not all information is correct.  Remember, anyone can post anything on the internet!!! 

Let's take T-Shirt quilts for example.  I have found on the internet that most sites say to stabilize your T-shirts before you cut them into blocks.  This is true, you do need to stabilize your T-shirts.  A few site tell you to just cut away and sew them together without anything to stabilize them.  Some tell you what product to use.  Some do not.  Some say to use interfacing on your T-shirts, some say to use a stabilizer.  What is the difference?  What do I do!

Interfacing is a textile used on the unseen or "wrong" side of fabrics to make an
area of a garment more rigid.

Stabilizers provide support and stability to the garment which will allow better results to the finished embroidered or quilted product.

You do need to stabilizer your T-shirts, this is true BUT you cannot stabilize them with a non-woven product like Pellon interfacings.  These are interfacings ladies, not stabilizers.  There is a difference!   Interfacings such as Pellon  interfacings do not let the T-shirt stretch, but they do not stay on the T-shirts.  They pop off  and therefore do not hold the T-shirt during the quilting process.  This results in puckers.  They also make the T-shirts stiff.  You do not want stiff T-shirts in your quilts.

You need to use a WOVEN STABILIZER for your T-shirts. There are a few of these out there. (We sell Form Flex 1010 just for this purpose.)   It will look like a thin cotton fabric with a fusible side.
Sulky also has a few stabilizers that will work.  Stabilizers hold the T-shirt and keeps it from stretching, stays in place and does not come off even after several washings and best of all it keeps the T-shirts in your quilts nice and soft.  In fact, you can't tell there is anything behind them!

If your cut up clothes to put in your quilts, please be sure that anything that is not 100% cotton (like quilting fabric), may also have to be stabilized.  All knits, jerseys, some silks and satins also need to be stabilized.

If ever in doubt, please come in a ask.  Remember there is never a dumb question! 

Back to cutting!
Jan

PS
I have listed at the bottom of the page, my UFO list and the current stage of each project.  I will be updating the list as I get things checked off.

How is your list coming!