How to Stabilize Vintage Handkerchiefs for a Quilt

[Yvonne S.]

Hello, All,

I have quite a few vintage handkerchiefs from my mother and grandmother that are made of a very fine cotton fabric that is too fine to use on a quilt without some form of stabilizing. I purchased a lightweight fusible pellon, but it had visible dots where the fusible was adhering the stabilizer and I didn't care for this. So I'm looking for another stabilizer that will work better, maybe an all over web products rather than something with dots of fusible. I'd really like to keep the handkerchiefs soft (not stiff like some fusibles can make them) and was hoping to locate a lightweight product that will do the job.

Has anyone made something similar and found a fusible that worked well?

Thanks for your comments and advice in advance.

Yvonne

[Nancy R.]

I haven't tried this, but on another thread Lois suggested using fusible tricot for stabilizing T-shirts for T-shirt quilts. It should provide the stabilization that you want and while retaining the drape.

I'm starting to work on a tablecloth quilt with a tablecloth that has a lot of cut-work designs. For that, I'm going to sew the tablecloth to a solid fabric and then layer and quilt as normal using the quilting to really hold things in place. You could also think about something like that if you have handkerchiefs with fancy edges that you want to keep.

Just some ideas,

Nancy

[Rita C.]

I wonder would Mistyfuse be the solution?

[Rita C.]

I would starch them and then carry on working as Nancy is for her table cloth quilt, with a backing fabric. I personally, am not a great fan of fusibles especially over large areas, because if you don't get it right first time the fusing can break down and then you get bubbles which will always be there. But that is not to say that they cannot be used to good effect.

[Rita C.]

Yes a good old starching sounds like a great idea. But use a pressing sheet between the hankies and the iron just in case...

[Yvonne S.]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a few handkerchiefs I can use for testing that aren't good enough to go in the quilt. I usually shy away from using fusible if I can, but I'm also unsure of the amount of quilting I'm going to do to the hankies, so they really need to be fused to another fabric or a good fusible stabilizer to support the thinner ones. I will take the suggestions and give them each a test and see if any of them meets my criteria for this project.

Yvonne

[Rita C.]

You know it just struck me that you would probably find some useful information on Cindy Needham's website.

[Constance G.]

Great idea, Rita! Cindy is definitely the grand dame of using all sorts of linens (handkerchiefs included) in quilts. She has a class on Craftsy now where she mentions treatment of vintage linens in quilts.