Minimizing Fabric Fraying Fabric

[loise98]

One of my least favorite things about quilting is trimming all the stray threads and fraying fabric on the quilt top before mounting it on the quilt frame. Does anyone else labor over this? And is there a way to minimize all the fraying? Thanks for any helpful tips.

[Marianne-is-sewing]

I find that after starting to starch my fabric before cutting I have a lot less fraying going on. I am not a hand quilter so I do not know if it makes it more difficult to hand quilt if the fabric is starched. I do cut away all the stray threads before making the quilt sandwich. I think it is worth doing because I spend time and effort piecing to the best of my capability as well as quilting so I want the best possible end product and for me quality goes before quantity but I can fully accept that others put quantity first. It really is a personal choice.
Marianne

[Marianne-is-sewing]

Thanks, Marianne. Would you mind sharing your method of searching?

[Marianne-is-sewing]

Thanks, Marianne. Would you mind sharing your method of searching?

Searching for stray threads or starching fabrics?
Marianne

[suehenyon]

Hi QuiltingTime,
What's your name, so as we don't have to say, "hey, you? :lol:

Sta-Flo liquid starch is very inexpensive and can be cut in half with water, put in a spray bottle, for a nice heavy duty starch. It should help fraying a lot and is a great benefit when needing to make precision cuts. Sometimes, we starch two or three times to make the fabric quite stiff. It will wash out, in the end.

[suehenyon]

I, too, use Sta-Flo starch...it does help with fraying, and especially helps with keeping cut shapes from stretching. It makes piecing much easier and more accurate! As Sue says, cut it half-and-half with water. I put it in a spray bottle and spray the fabric well before ironing. Margo, I believe, soaks uncut fabric in the starch mixture; you'd then air-dry and iron it.

I try to remove stray threads as I piece and press units. You can go over the quilt back gently with a sticky roller, though this sometimes pulls up new fraying threads...

[Marianne-is-sewing]

I use Diane Gaudinsky's recipe with ordinary corn flour without any additives (some has got anti-caking agent in)
Here is a link to the blogpost where she explains everything: http://dianegaudynski.blogspot.co.uk...02/starch.html
I put painters tape around 2 fingers with the sticky side out and dab after I have been using thread snippers (the curvy kind).
Marianne

[Marianne-is-sewing]

Marianne, I meant to say starching. To all, thanks for your helpful replies. It makes sense to starch the fabric for many reasons, so I shall add that with my next project. Betty