Replies

1. 
   carolfresia | Nov 17, 2005 07:26pm | #1

   The pieces are quilted separately, then sewn together. With the batting choices that Mary recommends, there's not nearly as much bulk at the seams as you might expect, so she just sews as for any garment. You can get more details in Mary's article in issue No. 104. These jackets tend to be quite lightweight and soft, so they're very comfortable to wear.

   The edges are sometimes treated with facings, usually in a coordinating or complementary fabric. Other times, Mary applies a bias binding to the edges (see her article in No. 100).

   Carol

2. 
   Megh | Nov 18, 2005 01:26pm | #2

   I've not read through that article yet, but I intend to.  I bet it is advised that you make the pattern pieces larger that you want, sandwich & quilt the pieces, and cut them to the proper size.  The quilting will/can cause the fabric to shrink up.  Wouldn't you just hate to complete that jacket only to find it was too small...   

1. 
   carolfresia | Nov 18, 2005 05:29pm | #3

   That's exactly right. You cut each section with a margin of an inch or two, do the quilting, then recut according to the original pattern. Mary actually includes a very important pressing step before quilting: layer the fabric, batting, and backing together, and press from both sides firmly so that the layers kind of meld together and the batting flattens out somewhat. THis makes it easier to quilt and keeps the whole thing a little less bulky looking.

   Carol

1. 
   muslinmad | Nov 18, 2005 10:05pm | #4

   thanks so much for your informative replies. I don't have issues 100 or 104 but will try to get my hands on them asap. bias binding seems like the obvious answer since that's the way quilters go about finishing, but none of the pieces in the most recent article use this technique. particularly the green jacket, which is absolutely stunning, is most mysterious to me. the front opening appears to have neither a facing, nor bias binding along the edges, if there is a seam along the edge it could only have been created before quilting, could she have created a pocket of the front outside and inside pieces, stuffed them with the batting and then quilted them?