Quilting fabrics

What is your thoughts on sewing garments with quilting fabric? I've read so many reviews. Colette has a very insightful post here: http://www.colettepatterns.com/?s=quilting+fabric
I find that there is a large variety of patterns and colors in quilting fabric but the hand of the fabric is not quite right for clothing. Oddly there appears to be more quilting fabric than garment fabric available. Not sure if this is just here in USA or world wide. Quilting certainly hit it's stride a handful of years back but I get the sense there is a large community of garment minded sewers.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on April 27, 2011 at 6:24pm

Definitely go for it! :)

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Permalink Reply by Adey Lim on April 27, 2011 at 6:24pm

I love the colors and designs on quilting fabrics! I find that they crinkle a lot less than fashion cotton fabric (perhaps due to threadcount??). So far, I find that they work best for circle skirts (in fact better than fashion fabrics) and shift dresses. They are just so easy to sew with!

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Permalink Reply by Jen on April 28, 2011 at 3:48am

I've got a heap of quilting cottons as I like to do quilting too and have never really thought to use them for clothing - I may have to rethink this. Some of them have decent yardage too.

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Permalink Reply by Debbie on April 28, 2011 at 4:44am

I am tempted by quilting cottons everytime I go into my local fabric store - they have much better prints and colours than the dressmaking cottons. I do agree with the Colette post - they probably should only be used on garments that require a little extra body/stiffness, because they do take a long time to soften up completely - which is a shame (when wanting to use them for garments).

Maybe with the resurgence of garment making the choices of fabrics will increase - we can only but hope!

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Permalink Reply by Meagylove on April 28, 2011 at 5:20am

Quilt fabric is in abundancce in Australia, well Victoria anyway and nice dress fabric is scarce. My hattrick skirt is made of patchwork fabric from my stash. It was a little stiff to work with at first but has softened up beautifully. Downfall is I will need to iron it!! All the dress fabric around me is not attractive or more suitable for my grandmother. Great topic for discussion Cathe, cant wait to hear everyones opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Rachel Pinheiro on May 2, 2011 at 8:16am

I love the texture of quilting cottons and I hope to use it this summer... My fabrics choices goes more with my fingers than my eyes recently as I made bad mistakes (mainly cause I liked the look of it) ...

Im sure they are a delight to sew as many wont require lining.

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Permalink Reply by barbara on May 11, 2011 at 10:52am

I made a top out of quilting fabric because the colours were gorgeous , hard to resist when you see all those fabrics displayed in colour groups. However, the fabric didn't wash well. It looked tired after just a few washes.

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Permalink Reply by Lisette Opishinski on May 20, 2011 at 8:04am

Bummer! I had the same problem with printed flannels. They look horrible after a few washes.

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Permalink Reply by Stevie on May 26, 2011 at 1:07am

I had this problem making a skirt from quilting cotton. It left a dirty line through the fabric and had to be abandoned :(

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Permalink Reply by Lisette Opishinski on May 20, 2011 at 8:03am

Definitely Jo-Anns tends to lean more towards quilting fabrics than apparel fabrics I have noticed (unless you include all that prom dress crap.) This is both bad and good for me. I love the prints, but lets face it, lots of patterns just can't use that fabric! Like slinky dresses, good quality blouses. But I've used them for other things: pajamas, gathered and tailored skirts and dresses with very tailored, fitted bodices and also for trims and bias bindings. I usually underline them. The higher priced and designer QC's usually have a nicer hand, aka they're not all nasty and scratchy or cheap feeling so I find that they work all right, you just have to know what to expect when you sew something out of a QC.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Stanton on May 20, 2011 at 8:12am

I generally don't like how stiff quilting cotton is. I'm drawn to the beautiful prints and colors, but am often a little skeptical on how they'll look when sewn up as a garment. Many of my friends quilt and I'm a little hesitant to look like I'm wearing one of their quilts--as beautiful as they are.

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Permalink Reply by Jen O on May 20, 2011 at 8:45am

There was a time when shops didn't isolate printed cotton broadcloth along a wall for quilters, it was ALL for apparel and the quilters had to poke around for their fabric, much the way fashion sewists do now. Older pattern envelopes will list "crisp" under the recommended fabrics, and that term was meant for this type of plain weave cotton. So, like a few mentions here, it's just fine if it suits the end result. You'll notice that many vintage sewing patterns prior to the knit invasion are perfect for this type of cotton, since that is exactly what was available at the time. It's also easy to work with. I say go for it , and my old home ec teacher would advise you to pre-wash it first to get some of the stiff sizing washed out and let it shrink a bit.