I love to mix different types and textures of fabrics in my quilts. In particular, I use a lot of Essex, a linen/cotton blend from Robert Kaufman. I’ve also made quilts using other specialty wovens including a wide variety of yarn-dyed cottons and chambrays.
When it comes to working with these fabrics, the questions I get asked the most are, “Do you prewash your fabric?” and “Can I wash a quilt made with this fabric?”
Let’s start with prewashing. I almost never do it. When I started quilting more than 20 years ago, I prewashed everything. After wasting a lot of time and water, I eventually determined that prewashing fabric for quilts was usually unnecessary. Besides taking a lot of extra time, prewashing removes the sizing (a stiffening agent from manufacturing) making the fabric more difficult to cut and piece accurately. Additionally, most manufacturers of precut fabrics, like fat quarters and kits, do not recommend prewashing those fabrics.
It’s true that, if you were to wash loose pieces of a bunch of different woven fabrics, they would likely shrink at very different rates. But, that’s not how things work in a patchwork quilt, where a pieced top is stabilized against pieces of batting and backing with quilting stitches. I’ve found that, as long as a quilt is finished with an adequate amount of quilting, the whole thing will tend to shrink uniformly in the wash. And, if you’re using a natural fiber batting, that batting is likely to shrink more than any of the quilt fabrics anyway.
When it comes to washing finished quilts, my experience has been that a quilt made with Essex can be washed, as long as it’s well-constructed and finished with an adequate amount of quilting.
So, what is “an adequate amount of quilting”?
I describe an adequate amount of quilting as quilting that is uniformly dense across the entire top of a quilt, with no parts left intentionally unquilted. This might be a single quilting design, as I usually use, or it could be a variety of motifs. The key is that the quilting covers the entire quilt and stabilizes all of the piecing to the batting and quilt back.
It may help to think of this like laminating a piece of paper. The lamination protects the paper, making it sturdier than it would otherwise be. An adequate amount of quilting protects your quilt top, making it sturdier than it would otherwise be.
My rule of thumb for determining the density of quilting is to aim for most pieces in the patchwork to have at least one quilting stitch. Basically, the smaller the piecing, the denser the quilting. It also matters how a quilt will be used. If you’re making a quilt that will be washed often, the quilting will be serving an important structural function. If you’re making a quilt to hang on the wall, the quilting is going to be more about aesthetics.
When washing a quilt, I recommend using cool water and a gentle cycle. Remove a wet quilt from the dryer immediately after the wash cycle ends, and dry at a low setting.
Because of the vast differences among laundry machines, detergents, municipal water supplies, etc., I can’t guarantee you will have the same results as me. What I can tell you is that I’ve made and washed many quilts with Essex and other wovens over the years, and I’ve had good results with the process I’ve outlined above.
Here are a few more tips for working with Essex and other woven fabrics in a quilt. They all apply to quilt making generally, but can be especially helpful when working with yarn-dyed wovens and linen blends.
- Start your project with a sharp rotary cutter blade, a new needle, and pins that aren’t too dull. This will reduce snags, which can lead to unraveling.
- Try piecing with a Microtex/Sharp needle. I like an 80/20.
- If you aren’t using a straight stitch machine, use a straight stitch plate. This will cover most of the hole between your feed dogs and make it easier to sew small pieces. If you don’t already have a straight stitch plate, I suggest doing a web search for “straight stitch plate for [machine model]” to see if one is available.
- Make sure that your stitch length is not too big or too small. 2.2 millimeters (about 12 stitches per inch) is an ideal stitch length for most patchwork.
- I don’t recommend using a larger-than-normal seam allowance, but it is a good idea to check your seam allowance and keep an eye on it as your work, to make sure it isn’t getting too scant.
- Stitch forward and backward (backstitch) at the beginning and end of seams to “lock” your stitches in place. I do this even when chain piecing. It may seem excessive, but I find that it’s worth it to never have seams unravel.
- If you press with steam like I do, you might find that the woven fabrics in your pieced units will sometimes warp or spread a little when you press. Rather than fighting with this, I just square up my pieced units after pressing. This gets rid of any excess threads and makes a nice clean edge as I continue piecing.
- I don't use starch but, if you find it helpful, I think that’s great. Different methods work for different people.
- Stabilize your piecing by finished the quilt with an adequate amount of quilting, as described above.
- The materials requirements on most quilt patterns, including mine, will tell you how much of each fabric is recommended. My patterns include a little bit of cutting ease to account for squaring up and miscuts. That ease will often accommodate prewash-related shrinkage, but it is not intended for that purpose. If you prewash your fabrics, I suggest reading the numbers in my (and most) materials lists as the amount of fabric you will need after any prewash-related shrinkage.
Linen and yarn-dyed cotton blends can add a lovely texture to quilts. I hope you will enjoy working with them as much as I do!