Frankenbatting: Thrifty? Sustainable? Yes and Yes.

by Darla Christiansen

Here’s how to give another life to your batting scraps 

So, you’ve finished some quilting projects lately (yay!) and you’re finding a collection of batting scraps quietly amassing in the corner. Maybe these trimmings are big-ish, but still too small for another quilt or even a baby quilt. Or the size is just weird and not actually useable on its own.

The good news is that you can Mary Shelley the heck out of those scraps and put that batting to use. Table runners, potholders, placemats, zipper pouches, wall hangings and small quilts are all great candidates for Frankenbatting.

Creating your monster batting does require a little extra time and effort, but here’s the payoff:

• you use what you already have
• your sewing area loses its obstacle-course vibe once piles of batting are gone
• you save a few bucks on a new package of batting
• you keep all that batting from finding its way to the landfill

Batting scraps multiply like kittens in my sewing room.

Here’s my design wall and a little exercise in Extreme Frankenbatting. Amazingly, this all ended up in a kid quilt, with no one the wiser.

3 Steps for Bringing Frankenbatting to Life

1. Sort

Put that lovely bamboo batting with other pieces of bamboo. Then make separate piles for the wool batting, the cotton-poly blend, the cotton, and so on.

This step is totally worthwhile, as it could impact the outcome of your final project. For example, say you match up wool batting adjacent to bamboo batting. Once you’ve finished your project, it could look and feel like there’s a change in quilting terrain where they meet up. Like two tectonic plates have met and the wool is winning. The difference in thickness and drape would likely be noticeable, because the wool wants to poof and the bamboo just wants to be all silky drapey.

2. Trim

You’ll want a clean straight edge before you join batting pieces. Use your ruler and rotary cutter to get a useable piece that you can join with another. Using the measurement guides on your cutting mat can help with this. Simply trim your batting in the same way you square up fabric.

3. Join 

Find two pieces of similar material and size. It’s time to put them together. Here are two ways to make it happen:

Fusible batting tape is an easy way to put batting scraps together, using your iron to activate the tape’s adhesive. This is a nice option for smaller pieces that you might use in a table runner or wall hanging. But the tape can be a bit unstable and even come apart on bigger Frankenbats that you might use in a throw quilt or larger.

Be sure to lower your iron temp to a low-heat, polyester or synthetic setting. And then just iron the tape directly onto the batting. Alternatively, use a hotter iron paired with a protective sheet. Whatever you choose, just check the instructions on the batting tape package.

Batting tape is a simple way to join batting scraps.

Use a low-heat iron to apply tape directly to the batting.

You can use a hot iron to apply the tape. Just be sure to use a non-stick sheet to avoid a sticky melty mess.

Sewing batting pieces together is the least exciting sewing I’ve come across, but it is my preferred option for making Frankenbatting. It’s easy and relatively fast. If you do opt for the sewing method, consider using a running stitch instead of a zigzag. The pieced batting with zigzag has a tendency to gap, while the running stitch keeps things in place.

To sew batting pieces together, try a running stitch set as wide as your presser foot will allow.

Center your presser foot at the join line and stitch away.

“We are unfashioned creatures, but half made up.” – Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

From there, just keep adding your sorted and trimmed scraps. Rinse. Repeat.

For a finishing touch, take your Frankenbat to the ironing board and give the seams a nice press on a cool setting or using a hot iron and a pressing cloth.

Once the two pieces are stitched together, you can opt to give it a quick press, but if that feels too fussy, skip it. Above: Before (left) and after (right) pressing.

When Your Batting Scraps are from Different Worlds

Can you get away with merging slightly different battings? You bet. Just take into account some of the batting’s characteristics such as:

• Thickness – try to match the loft of the batting pieces.
• Color – if your quilt top is largely white fabric, a stark white batting might show through differently than a natural color batting, and your final product may reveal the places where two colors of batting were joined. This really isn’t a concern if your quilt and backing are dark or medium colors, as the batting likely won’t show through the fabric layers.
• Material – in some cases, what the batting is made of will be blatantly obvious, as with our wool-bamboo tectonic shift noted above. But pairing pieces that look and feel similar to each other can absolutely work.
• Needle-punched – look to see if there are small indents or tiny holes on one side of the batting where the needle would go in during sewing; on the other side it might look fuzzy like a worn sweater. Try to keep the needle-punched sides up when joining scraps.
• Scrim – this sheer woven layer helps provide a little more stability to the batting, and again, just try to keep it on the same side from one scrap to the other.

These batting pieces are not exactly the same type, but definitely close enough.

Down the Rabbit Hole of Selvage

During the cutting process, or rather, before you cut, take a moment to look at how the batting drapes.

• Just like fabric, batting has a lengthwise grain running parallel to the selvage (that tightly woven edge of the fabric that keeps it from fraying) and a cross grain that’s perpendicular to the selvage. The cross grain will have a little more stretchiness to it.
• If you’re lucky, your scrap might still have an intact selvage. But generally, it’s kind of a guessing game with batting scraps. You can sometimes see if there are subtle lines showing the direction of the weave that provides some indication about grain.
• All of that being said, you can absolutely join your batting pieces without any regard to selvage! Just take note, if the joined batting scraps are hanging askance or have a wonky alignment, it could mean a wavy quilt later.

You'll know you have a selvage edge on your batting when one edge is suspiciously straight, and has a very subtle difference in texture and weave.

Just Do It

Let’s be honest. You can make useable Frankenbatting without doing any of the extra fussy steps here. It can totally work! And the great part about Frankenbatting, it’s hidden safely inside layers of fabric. Imperfections, for the most part, do not matter.

So, what will you make with your leftover batting scraps?

Happy sewing, friends!