Franken-Batting Tip That Uses A Straw

Hi Quilty Friends!  Today I'm going to share with you a little trick for sewing 100% polyester franken-batting with the help of a bendable straw.

Why is it called franken-batting?  Well, I guess some clever quilter thought sewing together scraps of batting looked like Frankenstein stitches.  However it came to be it's a cute name for using up leftover batting pieces.

This trick is only useful for polyester battings because cotton batting is low loft and does not present the same issues as the polyester when being sewn. 

To sew together your batting scraps you will first need to straighten the edge of the batting you intend to sew.  This allows the edges of the batting to fit together nicely when sewn together   I'm not going to show how to cut the batting edges.  It's the same process as cutting a straight edge on fabric. Obviously you've figured that out or you wouldn't need batting.  However, I will tell you polyester batting will dull your rotary cutter blade.  I use an old blade to cut mine.

Before we get started I want to share with you how I store my scrap polyester batting.  The box below is years of batting scraps.  It's stored under the cutting table.

Inside this box is 3 vacuum sealed bags. It can be pulled out, added to and resealed as I make more scraps.  These bags can be found at places like Walmart, Target and Amazon.  They are easy to use, stuff them to the fill line, zip them closed then use your vacuum cleaner hose to suck out the air.  I love these bags.  They are great for condensing this very lofty batting and making more room for all those other must haves. And by that I mean fabric.

Today I'll be opening the largest bag.  It should be all I need to quilt up the charity quilts I'm making from my unloved fabrics.

Once the bag is opened the batting returns to its normal poofy self.

All the poof is the problem when making franken-batting.  The open toe foot needed for the zigzag stitch can get caught in the poof of polyester batting.

This is where the straws come into play.  Well you only need one straw.  The straws with the ribbed bendable area work best.

Just give it a little trim as shown below. 

Now slip that straw over the forks.  This one is a little too long and would be blocking my view of the seam to be stitched.

So I trimmed the ends a little and stuck it back on the forks.

I like to set my zigzag stitch to as wide and long as possible.

Now all there is to do is stitch. 

Normally I wouldn't use red thread.  That's just for your benefit so you can see the stitches.  This little trick takes the headache out of polyester franken-batting.  I wish I could remember where I first saw this trick so I could give them credit.  It was a game changer!

Of course you could spend the money for the fusible batting tape.  To be honest I thought for sure the Heat Press tape would not work on polyester batting.  My thought was polyester batting melts with heat.  But low and behold it can be used with polyester batting.  I found this quilters review using the tape on several types of batting.   She also has a polyester hand stitched franken-batting tutorial in the same post. 

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

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