Refurbishing an Old Quilt
Whether your quilt was made by your great-grandmother or found at a garage sale, you may want to keep it forever. Quilts like many types of blankets are susceptible to damage — even normal wear and tear can shorten the life of an old quilt. Instead of throwing the quilt away or letting your pet use it, you can refurbish it. Refurbishing an old quilt stabilizes it and extends the life. Although your immediate impulse may be to take it to your local quilting guild or fabric shop for repair, you can do it yourself. Refurbishing a quilt can be a painstaking but rewarding process.
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Instructions
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Examine the old quilt. Delicately spread the quilt flat. Slowly, look at the quilt. You want to see any damage, worn, tears or distressed spots. You may want to draw a diagram of the quilt to mark the areas of damage. This prevents you from further damaging the quilt by constantly spreading it out to repair it.
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Repair any loose seems or stitches. Gently turn, or fold, the loose edge of the quilts fabric under. Use a fine silk or cotton thread to sew the loose seem or stitches. Practice on a muslin or a blanket before repairing the quilt. You want to feel confident that you won’t make a mistake.
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Replace missing fabric. Find a vintage piece of fabric similar in hue or color to the patch on the old quilt. If you can find one at a vintage shop or thrift store, you can try to reproduce the fabric. Place the edges of the new fabric over the old fabric and next to existing seam lines of the adjacent patches. Then sew along those lines.
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Eliminate any splits in the old quilt. Place fine fuse under the splits, and then push the edges of the splits back together. Melt the fine fuse with a hot iron to stabilize the area. Only use the tip of the hot iron to eliminate the edges. You may want to practice on muslin to avoid any mistakes.
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Cover frayed fabric with sheer mesh when you have quilt patchwork fabric that is too damaged. Use chiffon or tulle to cover the damaged area. Sew the mesh along the seams.
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Document your work. Create a fabric label that includes the information you know about the quilt and any repairs you made to it. Sew the label onto the back of the quilt.
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Tips & Warnings
If you have to replace the binding or batting, use authentic material. For example, an old quilt created prior to 1900 uses requires a straight edge binding. Quilters used biased binding on quilts after the 1900s.
You can use silk fabric instead of cotton. Silk thread is stronger and becomes almost invisible on your quilt. Silk fabric, however, may cut any cotton threads originally on the quilt.
Always practice before refurbishing a quilt. Mistakes are permanent.
References
- Photo Credit Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
