How to choose the right batting: part two. Thin battings.

Hi everybody there! As promised, here I am again, with the second part of the – long – post I’ve decided to dedicate to the – as long – subject concerning “battings”.

This time, I’m going to focus on the several battings you can find in our website in this page.

And I’m going to talk about thinner battings and their ideal uses, which, however, aren’t certainly “compulsory” These battings, in fact, are very versatile – just because they’re not so thick or soft – and are widely used in many quilting and/or creative sewing applications, just thanks to their reduced thickness, making them easy to work with.

Let’s start with the very first ones we introduced in our online store, a few years ago now, when in Italy this sector was still a sort of “unexplored land” and still much sought-after: white batting and ecru batting.

The reason of their success is easy to guess and it’s actually a sum of reasons Both of them are made of strong synthetic material and feature a very good quality/price ratio: this is what makes them quite appealing – and, to be true, strongly recommended – to anyone approaching for the first time any work of creative sewing, requiring the employ of a batting. As a matter of fact, both the ecru and the white one are just a few mm thick and this is why they’re ideal to make some practice with machine quilting (the less thick is your batting, the easier is machine quilting!), as well as hand quilting. Both these battings are also quite compact and this makes them less “slick” when they’re under your sewing machine’s foot: and this is not a characteristic to be undervalued, most when you’re using a simple sewing machine, with no dual feed, i.e. that feature allowing you to machine sew without finding out that more layers of fabric (plus the batting needed for any patchwork) tend to slide one over the other! I recommend these battings mainly for wall panels, such as – Xmas is getting closer - advent calendars, or for any nice hanging accessory case for your bathroom, or the bedroom of a baby! But they’re also perfect for projects like this irresistible “tabletop pocketed”.

Just think of how astonished you’ll leave your sewing-addicted mom or grandma, if you give them this “pocketeer” as a special gift!!!

This Legacy has same thickness (3 mm approx.), but it’s fully made of soft, 100% cotton and comes with a scrim. Here is the Legacy batting with scrim.

But what’s exactly this “scrim”? Well, this word means that the batting is processed with a surface finishing involving the use of a highly thin veil of synthetic material, making it more stable. This also means that the cotton composing this batting usually shows littler shrinkage when washed (in comparison to traditional cottons), but – most of all – it makes this batting actually more stable when machine quilted, i.e. easier to machine quilt On the other hand, the scrim makes the cotton batting less suitable for hand quilting: don’t forget! So, choose this batting if you prefer to always work with natural fibers, even when you’re quilting something to hang on your wall or lay on your sewing table – such as the above-mentioned projects – but choose it all the more so for your patchwork projects needing a “precious” and not too thick batting, such as – for example – a bedspread for your bedroom, or a light quilt to be kept on your sofa when the season is changing, the central heating if already off and, nevertheless, it’s nice to still stay warm in the evening, enjoying our favorite movie, after a busy day of hard work

Hear from me next time and... Happy quilting!