How To Make A Quilt "Beard Guard"?

Thanks for the suggestion, but really only the one edge is damaged, and by "damaged I mean not only missing entire blocks, but the ones that remain are so ratty looking it isn't decent.

Aside from a beard guard the only way of saving this quilt would be to make new blocks and recreate the entire edge from scratch. Much as I would like to do this, do not have that kind of time as my mending box is quite full.

*Think* have an idea of how to go about it and will measure out some material tonight and pre-wash so at least that is out of the way. From the pictures one has seen of beard guards, they are probably nothing more than a strip of material sew at one edge (usually the top) of a quilt. Must be sort of like a fabric sandwich, no?

Candide

I am unable to offer assistance, I don't quilt, and googling "Beard Guard" turns up lots of sites with protective rain-gear for men's beards....:-}

Maybe they would be able to help over in rec.crafts.textiles.quilting or one of the other quilting newsgroups.

my mother and grandmother used to sew lengths of old, soft white cotton sheet to the top edge of every quilt they had and made before it went onto any bed! i would suggest finding a complimentary cotton fabric, and washing and drying it several times. then, measure the lenth of the quilt you need to cover, and the width you need to cover. make your own pattern for them, including seam allowances. it is a daunting task, but i would not machine sew the new edge on--any new fabric sewn onto old will tend to rip the old on its own...adding a machine action would tend to accentuate that. it will also add "pull" to the edge, and give added stress. we just started sewing on the back side, either a firm whip stitch, or in the case of a removable edge, a generous basting stitch. (this project was one of the early sewing things i was assigned by the maternal units. i still do them by hand, out of respect for the fabric---and the past)

I picked up a beard guard at the thrift store. It amounts to 2 pieces of fabric about 10" x the width of the quilt + seam allowances.

3 sides are stitched and the last edge is hemmed or f> Have an older quilt that has seen a pretty rough life and want to

Thank you all for the replies!

The "pillowcase" idea seems doable, too bad it is too late to hit the fabric shops.

Candide

"Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_

school,

I am not sure if this will work but you can try a very very light fusible we call Dream Weave to stop the fraying It will add very little body to your fabric

Thanks for the suggestion/link!

After faffing around with the quilt last night, decided just to appliqué fine tulle over the damaged sections. This will stabilised the damaged areas, and to an extend hide them until can get the time to rebuild.

Candide "Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_

material. It

Which is exactly what one did, well really just basted sheer netting along the worse of the damaged areas making a "sandwich". Will hold until can get the time to really decide and do what must be done.

In principle the technique of mending a quilt with a sheer material is simple. One uses either silk organza, crepeline or stabletex (sp?), and simply patches over the damaged areas using a running stitch. As you stated this stabilises frays,tears and other small damage and is almost an invisible repair. The beauty of sheer netting type fabrics is they do not require pre-shrinking, nor do they unravel at the edges. Some quilt repair professionals will actually cover the entire top of a damaged quilt with a sheer fabric if required.

Thanks for the suggestions, great minds think alike! *LOL*

Candide