To Interface or not to interface, that is the question.

I had two 100% polyester fabrics- poplin and a lining fabric. The lining fabric was a bit slick to me. Both shred quite easily. As a garment sewer we would call it crazy, slinky, that it crawls, you get the picture. It shifts unless it is really pinned down.

I decided to use interfacing on it to see how well it would sew. I used what I had in the house- a light to medium iron on interfacing for clothes and stay flex interfacing I use in bag making.

Both interfacings did really well in giving the label stability when sewn and the edges didn’t try shredding while I sewed it in.

Please note- more expensive household irons on the linen and cotton settings CAN reach temperatures that heat up the ink and transfer it to another surface. This can happen when you do sustained heat and pressure in one spot- like pressing on interfacing.

If you are adding interfacing, make sure to have a pressing cloth or old towel under the label when pressing and press in short bursts of 5 seconds.

Please keep in mind that poplin is a synthetic fabric and sustained high heat could burn the fabric or cause the ink to ghost to the other areas of the label. Regular pressing to add framing fabric will not transfer the ink- it is not a sustained or heavy pressing.

Light to medium interfacing

One thing I did not like right off the bat was that the light to medium interfacing showed the glue dots through the fabric. That irritated my OCD and would bug me to remake the label. But I didn’t- I finished it up and washed it just to show you.

Stay flex interfacing

The stay flex interfacing did extremely well. No glue dots on the front, it still draped well, it sewed up well.

Washing

What I didn’t expect was when they started to get washed.

After two washes the light to medium interfacing still had the dots but the fabric was starting to… well, not wrinkle but get loose and ripple. The reason was the batting was shrinking but the label, attached to the interfacing, was not allowing it to shrink. So you had the dots AND a rippled label.

The stay flex interfacing was close, but the rippling was more of a bubbling as the label ‘gathered’ in areas the interfacing had not affixed to strongly. It makes the label look puffy in some areas, ripply in others, and this will become more pronounced as the batting continues to shrink.

No interfacing

I also tried the slinky lining fabric with no interfacing and the poplin fabric with no interfacing. Both turned out pretty good.

The lining fabric does show a ripple in the label because of the batting shrinking, but you can run your hand over the label and it smooths it out easily.

The poplin did the best. Really, the only way you can tell it was washed was the wrinkles in the frame around it when I ironed it. It has shrunk some along with the batting- it will keep up and look good throughout the life of the quilt.

Other pages for labels-

• Different look of fabric– showcases 100% cotton, 100% polyester, and 70/30% poly/cotton
• Finishing your label– how to frame out your sew in label
• Changes when washed– how the different substrates change when washed
• Label Sayings– what to say when you don’t know what to say