70% Recycled Cotton, 30% Recycled Polyester, Needle Punched Batting with Scrim.
What is scrim in batting
What is scrim in batting and can you use it for long arm quilting? Do you have to prewash or are there any other things we should know about it? I bought some Pellon made batting with scrim the other day. I had heard about scrim but can't remember what. Would appreciate help. Thank you. Sewbeadit
Scrim is a polyester grid that helps anchor cotton fibers. If you buy batting that says it's 97% cotton, it's because they've added the grid to stabilize the cotton fibers. It helps keep the cotton fibers from separating when the quilt is washed. When you use 100% cotton batting, you need the quilting stitches close together to keep the batting from separating. With scrim added to the cotton batting you can use wider spacing between your quilting stitches because the scrim will keep the fibers stable. Christine, Quilting Board
A lot of cotton batts are needlepunched through scrim now. Makes the cotton much more stable, can quilt lines further apart, etc. Scrim can make handquilting more difficult, but is fine for machine quilting. In general, you want the scrim side touching the backing of the quilt so when you machine quilt, the needle is punching the batting in the same direction as in the factory. (That's if you can tell which side has the scrim. Warm and Natural describes how to tell which side theirs is, but I don't know about other manufacturers.) Incidentally, not all batts that are needlepunched are needlepunched through scrim. Quilter's Dream cotton is needlepunched but does not have a scrim.There is no reason to prewash a batting that has scrim. Prism99
