Thread: Questions regarding precut fabrics

No, precuts are not preshrunk. Manufacturers recommend that you NOT wash them before using. I've never heard of steaming fabric so I don't know about that one. Diecut means that the shapes are cut with a metal die - like a shaped stamper with sharp edges. Supposed to make for better accuracy. Buy from the best manufacturer you can afford. I only buy pre-cuts from well known lines. Moda is my favorite. I have found some distortion in all the jelly rolls and layer cakes I have purchased. I have also learned the hard way how to treat the jelly roll strips. I was working on a Gemini quilt from jelly rolls and found that I was distorting them as I starched them and pressed them. So now I just dry iron them before I use them. Lesson learned.

Maybe you can contact the seller and ask what they mean by "steamed".
Could be they ironed it with steam? I buy lots of pre-cuts. No, they are
not pre-shrunk and they are not always accurate. If you buy pre-cuts,
be prepared to work around this. I starch all my fabric heavily including
pre-cuts. They do need gentle handling though. To avoid lots of stretching
I cut my jelly roll strips in half before starching. Press (up and down) and
don't iron back and forth. Hope this helps.

I like to cut my own, that way I wash and shrink the fabric before I cut and get no shrinkage after my quilt is washed.

Hoffman Bali Pops now carry a "warning" that the strips are cut by hand and variations in strips will occur! A friend in my quilt group made a major complaint to Hoffman after purchasing one for a class and having a lot of uneven strips so they now have this warning on their package!