Quilt Making With Linen
When I asked for blog post topic recommendations the other day someone asked “How to keep linen straight?”. Another person asked “Could you discuss issues with seams and quilt seams coming apart, especially after washing? These two questions are somewhat related so I’ll combine them in this post. I’ll start with the first question. My opinion about working with linen is that it’s not a great fabric for beginners. If you’re new to quilt making or sewing in general start with a fabric that is better at holding its shape such as cotton or hemp, or a blend of the two. Linen and cotton blends are also much easier to work with than straight up linen. Once you gain some experience and muscle memory using a rotary cutter with the easier to handle fabrics give linen a try but beginning with it as a first fabric will pose a challenge. Same story for silk or any slippery fabric!
When cutting linen fabric I recommend to cut from smaller pieces of fabric rather than from long yardage lengths. Half yard or fat quarter size pieces are a good size to cut from. As with any fiber, give it a good press before cutting. In the photo above you can see that I’ve folded the 1/2 yard of fabric I’m cutting from onto itself so it doesn’t hang off the cutting table. This helps a lot when working with linen. Gravity isn’t pulling the fabric and making it bow under the ruler. When you cut the first frayed strip from the top to clean the edge, make a more generous cut than you would with stiffer fibers.
After cutting the top edge nice and straight, gently lift the ruler off the fabric, then gently place it back onto the fabric to cut whatever width strip you need. When cutting linen I prefer to use a smooth acrylic ruler that slides nice and easy over the fabric rather than using a slip proof ruler that will catch on the fabric and make it shift.
After cutting your first strip I recommend leaving the ruler on top of it and pulling the piece of fabric you’re cutting from towards you to separate the two pieces. This ensures that the freshly cut strip under the ruler stays nice and straight. Using a fresh sharp rotary blade is key here. Set the yardage you’re cutting from to the side and cut your squares from the strip right away being careful not to shift anything when you lift the ruler. Once your squares are cut bring the piece you’re cutting from back to the cutting table and gently straighten it out. Cut across the top edge to straighten it up each time you cut a new strip for the best results. Linen makes beautiful quilts but it takes a little more effort and patience than quilting cotton or blended cellulose fibers. Working with it gets a lot easier with practice though and before long you’ll be cruising right along. I hope these tips help!
Now for the second question about seams coming apart especially after washing. Linen fabric is more of a culprit here than cotton and cellulose blends as you can see from the frayed edges in the photos above. Regardless of fiber type, if your seams are consistently coming apart my guess is that the tension of your sewing machine might be off. The stitches on both sides of the fabric should be flat and even with no puckering. If your tension is off then your seams are going to come apart. The next thing that comes to mind is your stitch length. Perhaps experiment with shortening your stitch length to around 1.8. When piecing linen fabric I shorten my stitch length and I’m sure to check that my tension looks good and adjust frequently if needed. My mechanical machine requires tension adjustments pretty regularly but this shouldn’t be as much of an issue with a computerized machine. Lastly, be sure that the edges of your pieces are flush when you’re sewing them together with the standard 1/4” seam allowance. Use pins to hold the pieces in place so they don’t slip. If one piece slips and your seam-line is too close to the edge the seam won’t be stable.
As far as quilts coming apart in the wash, quilts and clothing alike are going to last longer if you hand wash them with a gentle pH neutral liquid detergent. The washing machine is especially hard on quilts because they’re dense and heavy. I prefer to soak and rinse my quilts in the tub, squeeze them out as best I can with a helper, then give them a quick spin in my front loader before hanging them on the line to dry. The quilts that I regularly wash in the machine are thrashed compared to the ones I wash by hand. I hope that helps! If anyone has suggestions to add please feel free to do so in the comments.
