Using Cotton Flannel in Quilting

 

 

If you are new to quilting, the vast choice of fabrics may have your head spinning. You obviously gear yourself toward the aisle that says “quilting cottons,” but something else catches your eye. Quilting cottons are not the only fabrics that have prints and solids.

There are others to which you may be attracted, one in particular that is soft to the touch. It seems like it would be perfect for a snuggly quilt.

That fabric you have stumbled across is probably flannel. It’s soft and it’s pretty. So, why don’t we set our fabric selection autopilot to steer us toward flannel?

The truth is that it is fine to use flannel fabrics when making quilts. The key when doing this, however, is to use all flannels. Don’t mix and match them with quilting cottons in your tops. You want your quilt top to be a consistent weight throughout. Mixing typical quilting cottons with flannel will create inconsistency in your quilt top.

Why is consistency among fabrics important in your quilt tops? It’s mostly an issue of wear. For instance, if you piece a strong fabric next to a weaker or thinner one, the weaker fabric will wear out sooner. When you launder such a quilt, the thinner fabrics are rubbed against the thicker ones and will tend to wear out faster over time.

Most flannel you will find is light to medium weight. The tightly woven fabric feels soft to the touch because of its napped surface.  It is generally made from cotton or a cotton blend but can even be found in wool varieties.

Some heavier flannel that you see is made of wool, cotton or rayon and is usually finished with a light nap.

Just like your quilting fabrics, flannel can shrink. So, if you are making a flannel quilt, or using flannel for the back side of your quilt, you definitely want to pre-wash it.

Flannel does sag and doesn't hold shape well, just like the comfy shirts that many of us own, so be sure to keep this in mind when planning a quilt. If you want a quilt with a crisp look, flannel fabrics are not the best choice to use. However, if you want something comfortable and relaxed, flannel just might be the way to go.

Don’t try to add stability to flannel by starching and ironing it. Ironing flannel may make it lose its soft nap (the exception is worsted flannel).

Because it has a nap on one side only, you can iron from the underneath side, protecting the top side’s nap. But, to be safe, don’t iron the flannel.  Instead, fluff the wrinkles out of your flannel fabric in a hot drier. Save the hot iron and starch for your crisp quilting cotton fabrics.

Flannel has been around for centuries. It comes to us from Wales. Its Welsh name, gwlamen, dates back to the 16th Century in Wales . The Welsh term means “of wool” or “allied with wool.”  By the 17th Century, the French were using the same fabric -- “flannelle ” -- and the Germans began to refer to “flanell” in the 18th Century.

As carding mills grew in popularity, so did the popularity and production of flannel. Carding mills are where clumps of fibers are separated. Instead of being clustered together, the fibers are brushed to become more or less parallel to each other.

The nap that makes flannel so soft is created by the brushing process in the carding mill. There are hand tools for brushing, but most modern-day, commercially produced flannel is machine carded for the sake of efficiency.

Flannel makes a great fabric for a baby quilt or a warm cuddly quilt for those cold winter nights.

 

© 2011-, Penny Halgren. This article courtesy of http://www.How-To-Quilt.com. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.