Thread: pre wash oops

I never prewash my fabrics, well maybe not ever. This time I had some large scraps that were sent to me in a scrap swap and I wanted to use them, but they had me questioning if I should pre wash them or not, as they seemed to be heavy in dye. The one piece was blue and very pretty and seemed to be an artist hand dyed fabric and was very stiff. I thought for sure it would bleed. Then the other was about a 12" square batik that was a very dark purple and was stiff as well. So I put them in hot soapy water in a bowl. As soon as the purple one hit the water it was bleeding bright pink dye! It bled and bled, I even put a color catcher in the bowl and let it sit over night. The color catcher was bright pink and so was the water, I took them out threw out the color catcher and redid the hot water on the fabric and the fabric came out clear. So I am using it. The blue hand dyed looking piece never bled a bit. So weird.

So just to say that you never know till you check them out if you should pre wash. All of my batiks will be checked before using! I know there is always a lot of discussion about prewashing or not and thought someone may be interested in this little experiment!

It's great if you have the time. I recently started a quilt at classes in a quilt shop. I purchased fabric at time of class, due to travelling distance. No time to wash so can't always wash which I do like to do. It is always amazing to me which fabrics run . I find purple and reds usually run.

I buy my batiks at quit shops, but all have had dye issues. Basically, I don't want to make a quilt that may have that issue. Color catchers are great, but in my experience, it's just easier to buy non-batik and rinse in hot water once or twice (if there's a dye problem). I'm on the fifth rinse with color catchers and a turquoise batik! I soaked it 5 times before that. The resultant color is okay,but way not what I bought. So I'm off batiks.

Edited to add: hot water because it will do the job quicker...gets out the most dye and shrinks the most.IMHO

Originally Posted by tessagin

I prewash because of instances I've come across, odor, dye and origin (previous owner). I have mentioned before seeing people wiping their perspiration from their bodies, head neck and faces and underarms in the big box stores.

thanks for the first laugh of the day. The mental image of people lined to the wipe their faces on a bolt of fabric and sticking the bolt under their armpits?

I always prewash too. Not only to check the color, but to remove odors, sizing, etc that comes on it. New fabric stops in the laundry room, gets washed, then on to be pressed, folded and put away. Was hard getting into this routine, but worth it. Before we started this, my DILs hands started itching, peeling and really hurting. Now, no problem.