raveling fabric strings everywhere

[ollie1shoe]

well girls i think i know the answer to my question before i ask it i think its not quilting grade of fabric it looked and feels fine but the more i handled it during the time its took me to make a queen/king dresden plate quilt with lattice atround each block and 3 borders i have had it on and off machine quite a bit and the more its handled it just keeps fraying or raveling out after its sewed together it will take quite qwhile just to carefully clip these threads and not the fabric i think part of the problem is th 1/4 inch foot on my espiree is causing some of the problem so anyone with lots of exsperience with this type problem would love to hear from you

[Marilynsgrammy]

I recently had almost the same problem with some black fabric I got at my LQS... it was like it wasn't tightly woven...from now on when buying fabric I will play with the cut edge to see how it holds up.. hope yours is fixable.

[auntjana]

A couple of ways that I know of to fix the problem are

Use Fray Check on the edges of the fabric - it is something you can get at a fabric store.

the other is to use a narrow zig-zag stitch on the edge - this would work on long pieces of fabric - just inside of your seam allowance -

Both of these have always worked for me - and I am with Chriss - I check to see if the cut edge frays before I buy it -

Jana

[lorettav]

Be careful if you zig zag the edge. Sometimes it will cause the fabric to get distorted. I think you need to do something but I don't know exactly what because after you sew the 1/4" it might pull out.