Ever have what you think is a brilliant idea that definitely doesn’t work when it comes time to execute?
Well, that happened to me on a recent project involving backing fabric for a baby quilt. The quilt top incorporated fussy cuts of different fleece fabrics the customer had supplied. I thought it would be a great idea to use the leftover fleece as the backing fabric. WRONG! So, on to Plan B.
Due to a tight deadline, I had to shop my stash to come up with alternatives for the customer. She settled on a dark blue micro-fleece. It’s a double-layer soft fleece that almost resembles velour. It felt wonderful to my hand; however it was reputed to be a true PITA to sew because it stretches so much.
I am happy to report that the micro-fleece sewed like a dream with only minimal stretching. How’d I do that?
Machine: Janome 6600
Stitch: Straight, 3.0 length
Foot: Accufeed/walking foot with open toe
Foot pressure setting: #2 (I reduced the pressure by one number)
Needle: 70/10 or 80/12 Microtex
Thread: Coats & Clark cotton covered polyester 35 weight machine quilting thread
Batting: Quilter’s Dream 70/30 batting
I was also able to machine stitch the binding using the little Clover clips rather than my normal glue basting method. No mess and no sticky fingers!
Perhaps the stars were in alignment, but this combination worked so well, I wrote the settings in the little notebook I keep by my sewing machine. This little fleece is more expensive than the standard fleece you find in the stores, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a sale. I will definitely use this with other baby quilts.
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