Know Your Battings. Krista Moser
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Copyright © 2020 by Krista Moser and Landauer Publishing, www.landauerpub.com, an imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.
Print ISBN: 978-1-947163-25-6
eISBN: 978-1-607657-99-6
Contents
History of Batting
Making batting was once very labor intensive. The cotton bolls were picked by hand by family or often slave labor. The cotton bolls had to be dried, with the seeds and debris removed by hand. It was then carded (combed) into small batts. The batts were placed between the layers of the quilt top and back, then very close hand quilting held the layers together.
Wool blankets and extra clothing were often substituted as batting. Eventually the invention of the cotton gin, which separated the cotton from its seeds, made cotton faster and easier to process.
Cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney (1794)
Know Your Batting
Batting has come a long way from the leftover clothing and blankets women once used. There are so many options. Choose from cotton, cotton blends, polyester, wool, silk, and bamboo. There are various lofts, colors, and sizes to complement your quilt or craft project. Cotton, cotton blends, and polyester are the most popular.
Choose your batting according to the thickness and weight you want. Consider directions for care, cleaning, and shrinkage. Is this batting better for hand or machine quilting? How do you want your stitches to appear and how far apart can the quilting be? How thick or warm do you want the quilt to be? These are all questions easily answered with this handy booklet.
This little pocket guide is intended to give a general overview of the most common batting varieties available and the best uses for those listed. It is always a good idea to read the label on the batting you chose for that brand’s specific use and care information.
BATTING TERMINOLOGY
Bearding – Batting fibers separate and may “bleed” or leak through the surface of a quilt between the fabric weave. This can be a problem with darker quilts as a lighter batting will beard through and leave a lint layer across the quilt. It’s the most common with wool or silk batting.
Bleaching – Some manufacturers make a bleached version of their battings for use in white or light quilts.
Bonded – Batting treated with resins, glues, or heat fusing the fibers together. This process is often used to retard bearding or prevent fibers from bunching or shifting.
Drape – Pliability of the finished project; soft, flexible, and form fitting.
Fusible – Batting, stabilizer, or interfacing coated on one or both sides with dried glue or resin, which becomes an adhesive when heated.
Loft – Thickness of the batting is called “loft.” Generally, the higher the loft the more open the fiber structure. Low-loft batting is thin and flat, high-loft batting is thicker and fluffy.
Needle-punched – The batting fibers are layered up and then thousands of tiny needles are punched through the layers to fuse the fibers together. Sometimes the fibers are needle-punched to a scrim and sometimes they are just needle-punched together with no scrim.
Scrim – A thin layer of woven fibers or mesh applied to the batting to keep the fibers from separating, moving, or lumping together. Often this scrim is made out of polyester.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Does Brand Matter?
Generally, batting makers who manufacture similar products are fairly interchangeable. Some, however, set themselves apart by sourcing better-quality goods or by using little or no chemicals in their processing. You can read more about each brand’s qualities on their websites.
How is Batting Rated?
Batting doesn’t have a rating, per se. Of most common interest is how far apart the quilting can be, how thick the batting is, and how much each batting will shrink.
Which is the Perfect Batting for My Project?
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