Padded Hangers & Hanging Bags

I prefer hanging my large bed quilts in a closet rather than wrapping each on a tube. I am equally meticulous about the hangers as I am with the tubes I use for rolled quilts. I bought my heavy-duty wire, blanket hangers from the dry cleaners. These inexpensive hangers came with a thick cardboard roller attached. Each hanger can adequately hold the weight of a large quilt with no sagging. Metal hangers may corrode; adaptations had to be made to protect the textiles.

As with plain tubes, I wrap the roller on the hanger with aluminum foil, then apply strips of batting to pad the roller. I wrap the batting up the sides of the hanger to provide a barrier between the wire and the hanging textile. The batting strips are anchored in place with basting thread and large stitches. Wrapping the batting roll with pre-washed muslin is optional. The hanger is ready for the quilt.

I recycle projects that never made it into a show or simply lost their appeal into Hanging Bags to cover quilts or special clothing. Of course, one can make a "plain jane" bag from muslin but that’s boring. A plastic dry cleaner bag* can serve as a pattern, or, you can make a paper pattern by outlining the shape of the hanger shoulders. Be sure to add enough allowance to avoid the finished bag from being too snug to slide over the quilt on its hanger. I add a hanging tag to the bag for identification purposes.

*Please don't use plastic bags to cover textiles. Plastic retains moisture and could cause mildew.