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Hello, I am new here and new to quilting... I have been doing fine until I started adding some sashing and after I pressed my seams the sashing started puckering horribly! What is wrong?? Is it the cotton I'm using, the way I cut it, something with pressing?? I am machine piecing.
Thanks!
Attachment 5229
I'm not sure, but for starters did you sew with the sashing on the top or the bottom and did you stretch the sashing at all?
Not sure if it's the source of all the puckering, but it looks like maybe your iron was too hot when pressing. I've found I often need to use a cooler iron when working with any solids that aren't Bella Solids. OR I could be totally off. :)
the sashing was on the bottom, and i didnt stretch it, the puckers didnt show up until ironing, so i dont think it's a tension issue... so i guess maybe my iron was too hot... it was worse on some pieces than others so i guess worse when i left the iron on longer...
so you are probably right SummerK...
what should i do, take it all out and put new pieces and press cooler or can I still keep going with this? will everything get sorted out after I wash the quilt after it's done???
I remember in one of Jenny's tutorials, she states to make sure the sashing is on the top when sewing it on to prevent puckering. I would bet that's what happened. I don't think your iron was too hot because I can see fold lines on your sashing and they would be ironed out more with a hot iron??
Another thought, did you cut the sashing to the actual measuement of your panels? I would treat the panels as i would a border. Measure the center length of the panel and cut to that measurment.
If your sashing fabric was on the bottom your feed dogs could have eased in extra fabric. I some times do this on purpose if the block is a little off, especially with bias cut triangle sections.
The seams will pull a little and make a tiny accordion movement that will take up extra fabric.
Each piece of fabric has a direction that has very little stretch and the other has more. If you add up all of these tiny variables you can get the puckering you are seeing.
My only experience with fabric shrinking with a too hot iron was when I ironed fabric that wasn't 100% cotton on the cotton setting. It did melt the poly content and cause it to pull up or shrink. Always check the fiber content on the end of the bolt, just to make sure. If it's not 100% cotton, I write on the selvedge what the content is before I ever leave the fabric store. Some poly/cottons are adorable and hold up really well to being rough and tumble kids quilts.
I hate un-sewing! I might try to let it go, unless you are aiming to put it in a quilt show.
ok, thanks for the advice everyone! i will try sewing the rest with the sashing on top and see how that works out.
Good to know this (about sewing the sash on the top!) That explains some earlier quilt puckering. Thank you for asking the question, sbrz. The rows line up perfectly on your quilt and I love that gorgeous shade of pink!
when you are done, and if you wash the quilt it will probably be unnoticeable. I agree it is not worth un-sewing:)
how did you determine the size of your sashing? You should measure in the middle of your quilt not on the ends
