Quilt Restoration/Reproduction

Do you have your grandmothers quilt in a storage bin and its full of rips, tears, and stains? Do you wish you could display it for friends and family, but the damage prevents you from bringing it out for all to see?

Let me help you bring it back to life!

An antique heirloom quilt is priceless and restoring it can have its benefits, but it also has its downsides. Quilts made 20, 30, or even 60 years ago were made of a variety of materials including clothing, flour sacks, and fabrics that are no longer in production. Over the years, fabric becomes threadbare, ripped, stained, moldy and infested with pests like moths if not taken care of properly.

Pros of having a quilt restored:

  1. Patching holes and threadbare areas can help prevent further damage.
  2. Removing stains can held improve the smell and bring back the original color of the fabrics.
  3. Replacing fabric with new material can help reinforce seams, making it stronger.
  4. You can safely display it for you to enjoy and not hide it in a box anymore!

Cons of having a quilt restored:

  1. Restoring any antique quilt will deem it not “antique” anymore. In other words, you cannot sell it as an antique. It is rendered “worthless for resale” and you cannot have it appraise for any monetary worth.
  2. It is nearly impossible replace fabric with exact patterns/colors/materials. Like stated above, a lot of old quilts were made from clothing and flour sacks!
  3. It will NOT look original. I like to label them as beautiful Frankensteins.

So how can I help you?

My absolute goal is to help stop the quilt from being damaged further to the best of my ability. I try to patch holes and sew rips together to the best of my ability without using new material. However, in some cases, threadbare areas and completely missing areas call for new material to be used. I have some connections to reproduction fabrics that I try to match to the original pattern of the material. I have even gone to the extent of “tea staining” a white polka dot fabric to give it that antique look to match the original material. For stains, I try to make all the repairs first, and then hand wash the quilt with a gentle soap to help remove stains. Most of the time, I am successful…..but sometimes, a stain is forever. But one good thing is the musty smell will be much less and the fabric can appear to be brighter/vibrant!

Reproductions

Sometimes a quilt is just too far gone. Which is a sad thing to happen, but why just toss it and forget what it looked like? Lets reproduce it! We choose the fabrics and the patterns that matches the original as much as possible.

Either way, don’t just let the quilt sit in a box, lets see what we can do to make it shine once again!

Before there were two large holes that I patched with cute polka dot hearts
    This is a threadbare area that would fall apart if I tried to sew it back together. So a cute patch will prevent it from spreading.
    These 9 patches were completely destroyed. I removed the ripped sections and replaced with new material that looked very similar to the original.
    This was sewn back together since it was not threadbare.
    This entire section was destroyed. I found similar polka dot material, but it was bright white. So, I tea stained it to give it a more antique look.
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