Making a Whole Cloth Quilt with 4 Layer Gauze

Elizabeth Chappell

4 years ago

Make a Whole Cloth Quilt with 4 Layer Gauze

Learn to make a quilt with 4 layer gauze. This is one of the easiest quilts you could ever make, and you will love it. Here are the 2 quilts I made using 4 layer gauze.

What is 4 Layer Gauze

Gauze is a light, thin, loosely woven fabric. 4 layer gauze is simply, that: 4 layers of gauze attached together. The 4 layers are basted together every ½” or so with almost undetectable basting stitches. That’s why the fabric looks flat at first, but when washed it gets that crinkly look.

Before washing – flat and smooth.

What is a Whole Cloth Quilt

A whole cloth quilt is a quilt that is made of just one (or two) single layers of cloth. There is no cutting or piecing. It truly is the easiest quilt to make. In fact, a single layer would almost not qualify to be called a quilt, except I did a little hand quilting, so we will call it a quilt. The only thing I did beyond hand quilting for both versions, was a binding. But besides that, it is so simple!

How To Make A Whole Cloth Quilt With 4 Layer Gauze

To make a whole cloth quilt with 4 layer gauze:

Choose what fabrics you want to use.
1. If you pick want different fabrics for front and back, pick which fabric you want to use.
  1. I have seen people buy bed sheets they like and use the two sheets as the front and back of a whole quilt cloth. It’s an easy way to avoid piecing fabrics together to make it large enough.
2. You CAN use just one layer of cloth, like my 4 layer gauze.
3. You can use batting if you want, it’s personal preference.
Decide how you want to quilt your whole cloth quilt.
1. This can be any way you like! If you have 4 layer gauze, you actually don’t need to do any quilting at all.
2. You can do hand quilting, machine quilting, decorative, straight line. Anything you want!
Pick out fabric for the binding.
1. Your whole cloth quilt WILL need a binding.
2. Download my binding cheat sheet here to see how many strips of binding you need based on what size quilt you make.
3. My favorite tutorial is the Machine Binding Tutorial from Alison of Cluck Cluck Sew.
Quilt your Whole Cloth Quilt
1. If you are putting two fabrics together, you NEED to quilt so as the fabrics stay together.
  1. Check out my blog post on 3 WAYS TO FINISH A QUILT BY HAND.
2. If you are using (1) 4 layer gauze fabric as a whole cloth quilt, you actually don’t even need to quilt it. Can it still be called a quilt at that point? I’m not sure . . . However, I loved adding hand quilting to mine just for the look.
Wash your Whole Cloth Quilt
1. This is the fun part! If you use 4 layer gauze for your quilt, after you wash it, the texture becomes amazing! It gets crinkly and soft and oh, so wonderful!

Fabrics I Used and Where to Find Them

For my Whole Cloth Quilts, I mentioned I got my gauze from Field and Cloth. That is a small shop, however, and they only had a small supply of the 4 layer gauze. Here are a few other places to find some:

Etsy. Type ‘4 Layer Gauze’ in the search bar and you will find independent shops that carry 4 layer gauze.
Birch Fabrics. They just started carrying Organic 4 layer gauze.
Shannon Fabrics. In the search magnifying glass, type GAUZE. Shannon fabrics is THE place to find soft and cuddly fabrics, by the way. Love her stuff!

Earth Magic Line

For the front of my whole cloth quilt, when I used decorative fabric, I decided to use Magical Mushroom by Erin McManness of Paper Raven Co for Cotton and Steel Fabrics. Her entire line is AMAZING and a current favorite. But I picked this particular color because it’s soft, goes with my home decor, and I just had to have it. You know the feeling, am I right?