FRANKENBATTING!
Halloween is right around the corner, so today we're talking about frankenbatting! Have you heard of it? Really this is just a fun way of repurposing batting scraps using a zig zag stitch in order to create larger, more useable batting pieces.
Why make frankenbatting?
I find frankenbatting to be a great reason to reuse my batting scraps and finish up a variety of projects! Most quilts that I make don't use the full 90" length of my batting, so I'm often left with some sizeable chunks of batting. I use smaller scraps for the occasional quilted pillow, potholder, or other small project, but for the most part, my batting scraps are repurposed for other quilts.
When can I use frankenbatting?
You can use it for any project! Frankenbatting is just as strong and workable as a solid piece of batting. The only catch is that you do have a seam in your batting. For most quilts and other projects, you already have a variety of seams, so you'll rarely notice a batting seam in the mix. I do avoid using frankenbatting for whole cloth quilts and or for projects with large solid background elements where the batting seam may be more noticeable. Other than that, the frankenbatting (assuming you use a light or white thread to join your seams) will not be noticeable for most projects and will quilt up in the same way as non-frankenbatting.
What you'll need:
- Batting scraps. Preferably from the same or similar type of batting. For example, it's best to join only cotton scraps together, rather than a mix of bamboo, polyester, and cotton scraps. You should also avoid joining high and low loft batting. Any size scraps will do, it just depends on how much effort you want to put in!
- A machine that does a wide zig-zag stitch.
- light or neutral colored thread to match the batting and help your franken-seams blend in.
Making Frankenbatting:
1- Pull out your scraps and start measuring! I like to lay mine out on the floor and begin arranging them like a puzzle to get the largest piece of frankenbatting I can. For specific projects, I'll know in advance how big of a piece I need and measure as I work. I recommend cutting the edges your scrap pieces with a rotary blade so you're working with straight edges as you assemble.
2- Start by joining any two pieces together. Take them to your machine and set a zig zag stitch for as wide as you can (on my machine that's a 6) and about a standard stitch length (I typically do about 2.5). Butt the batting scraps up edge to edge, not overlapping, and feed them through your machine so the stitch catches both sizes as you sew.
3- Sew all your pieces together, adding one scrap at a time to your larger frankenbatting piece. Try not to pull or stretch the batting as you sew your seams in order to avoid warping. You can lightly press your batting after your seams are complete to help combat this, though I usually find that smoothing with my hand when I baste my projects works out any minor issues.
Your finished seams will look like this! You can make really large frankenbatting pieces, this one was enough to baste a throw size quilt!
You can see these photos are in the process of basting a quilt. I've smoothed out my frankenbatting already, but those smaller wrinkles that you see will not be an issue as you work. And I repurposed 5 pieces of batting for this that would've otherwise just been sitting in my closet- hooray!
Will you give frankenbatting a try? It's so simple and a super effective way to repurpose your scraps. Sure it takes a bit more time than just unrolling a fresh piece of batting, but when you're in a pinch or feeling overwhelmed by that pile of batting scraps, it's a great solution.
- Erin
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