We’re in the studio with Corey Yoder of Coriander Quilts to learn how she quilts using woven fabric! We love these soft wovens for their lovely texture and soft drape. If you’re not familiar with wovens, these are the same soft material used for those lovely vintage tea towels. Corey shares her tips for starching, washing and sewing with woven cotton fabrics for quilts that you will always want to cozy up to.
The Difference Between Woven Fabric and Printed Fabric
Wovens are a substrate made from 100% cotton that has a looser weave than traditional quilting cottons. Unlike printed cottons which have designs inked and printed onto bleached cotton, the patterns on them are made from weaving with dyed warp and weft threads, and some incorporate threads of varying weights, which give them an interesting texture. These fabrics are softer and have more drape than traditional quilting cottons.
Corey’s Sugarcreek Silky Wovens collection beautifully complements her collection of Sugarcreek prints. They can be used together or alone!
You will quickly notice a difference in weight and texture between the two, but combined, they still make a quilt that is oh-sew-gorgeous. That is why Corey made her Sugarcreek collection in both!
Caring for Woven Fabrics
To starch, or not to starch?
Corey prefers to starch wovens to give them more body and to prevent them from stretching when piecing and ironing. A little extra starch on your wovens will keep them crisp and easy to handle! If you do starch, Fat Quarter Shop carries various non-aerosol starches in the store. Kimberly’s favorite starch is the Faultless Niagara Original Hold.
How about pre-washing?
Corey does not pre-wash her fabrics and we wouldn’t recommend it with these. They’re a looser weave and would tend to fray quite a bit in the wash. Corey washes her finished quilts and hangs them out to dry. To avoid any chance of inks bleeding in the wash, she tosses in a few Shout Color Catchers to catch any loose fabric dye.
Watch the video tutorial
If you are ready to learn more about woven fabric and how you can incorporate it into your projects, go ahead at watch our video tutorial with Corey! If you are reading this via email, please click here to watch.
Share your projects with us!
We want to know how you quilt with woven fabric! Be sure to tag @fatquartershop and @corianderquilts and use the #fatquartershop so we can see and share your work! And all of these images can be repinned on Pinterest so you can share this tutorial with your friends or save it for later!
Happy Quilting!
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