Quilt Qua

Dryer Sheets in Quilting

By: Penny Halgren

 Quilters are very innovative people. After all, who else would have thought to take a bunch of small pieces of fabric to artistically combine them into one special covering?

It should come as no surprise that quilters come up with all sorts of resources for recycling.

One popular item that quilters seem to find multiple purposes for is the common dryer sheet. Who knew there were so many uses for those little sheets that we normally just toss into our laundry.
Some hand quilters keep a used dryer sheet handy to smooth out threads.

Nothing is more frustrating than having your thread twist while you are hand piecingor hand quilting. Apparently there is still enough anti-static left inside the sheet to keep the thread from clinging to itself.

Dryer sheets are also handy for cleaning your iron. No one wants to press seams or quilt tops with an iron that has fusible material stuck to its surface. That makes a horrible mess. To clean your iron using a dryer sheet, simply lay one or two on your ironing board and run the dryer across the top.

Repeat until all the fusible goo disappears. You can certainly recycle used dryer sheets for this purpose, but if you use new ones, you will get to enjoy a nice, fresh smell.

Dryer sheets are a great way to fluff freshness into your bed quilt in between washings. Simply toss one into the dryer with your quilt, fluff on the air cycle for a short while and it is ready to return to your bed.

You can also tuck a used dryer sheet (or a new one) into your linen closet so all your quilts and sheets will absorb that nice, fresh smell! They also work great in your sock drawer!

All four of these ideas are a nice way to recycle and are perfectly fine to try in my opinion. There are still other uses for dryer sheets, not that I would necessarily recommend them.

For instance, some quilters use dryer sheets for their quilting templates. If you are in a pinch and don’t have anything else on hand, I suppose it is okay to use a fresh, new dryer sheet to create a pattern template.

However, this is not the most cost efficient manner to make a template. I’d encourage cardboard, an old vinyl place mat, or old greeting cards instead.

I definitely wouldn’t try recycling a used dryer sheet for a template. The dryer sheets, nice and crisp out of the box, are limp and flimsy once they’ve made it through a dryer cycle. You would spend a lot of time starching them to make them stiff again. There are plenty of other household items to use instead…like the box the dryer sheets are packaged in.

Some quilters recycle dryer sheets by using them for stabilizer. Again, I would not recommend doing this unless it is absolutely necessary. There’s no guarantee they will hold up well if used in appliqué quilt projects. After several washings and dryings, the used dryer sheets might pucker beneath your designs.

If you are planning to give your quilt as a gift, don’t use dryer sheets as stabilizer because some people are allergic to the fragrance in them. If you don’t have stabilizer on hand, it is best to use an interfacing or another piece of fabric similar to the top piece for the stabilizer.

If you really want to recycle those dryer sheets, try using them to cleaning your iron, fluffing your bed quilt or smoothing the thread in your hand sewing needle. Refrain from using them as stabilizer or templates.

Happy Quilting!