Washing fabric before cutting
#21
I launder ALL of my fabric - but that's me! I made a quilt for my DGD and didn't launder the fabric, and the red bled onto the other fabrics. After that - I decided that I would wash everything. It took FOREVER and ever, but - I'm (hopefully) caught up. Now, as soon as new fabric arrives, the first thing I do is launder it in warm or hot water and try it. If the fabric is red or black (especially), I'll wash it a couple of times with extra rinses.
#22
for everyone like you meyert, there is another exactly opposite. Been doing a survey for a couple of years. Hard to get 4 or five people at a time to agree. But your reasoning is sound & safe. If you've every pieced a quilt back then washed the quilt & as you pull it from the washer you find thousands of threads where the quilt back used to be you will prewash more. I pretty much prewash everything, even the good stuff, 'cause I wanna know what it is gonna do before I give it to someone. But I have spray starch to make it behave when it comes out of the dryer!
#25
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I used to pre-wash my fabric, iron it and store it. But I found that I liked working with unwashed fabric better and now I do not pre-wash. I do mix washed and unwashed because I have them. After I finish a quilt I wash with color catchers-just in case. I, obviously, can no longer see a difference in the fabrics used. I use good quality fabric and have never had problems. I sew for a charity group that provides materials (cheap as possible because of budget constraints). The difference is astounding. There are a lot of considerations to buying and using fabric. You do get what you pay for.
#26
I'm sort of like quilterpurpledog--I used to pre-wash my fabric, iron it, and store it, but I now greatly prefer working with unwashed fabric better. That being said, I work with flannel a lot and always prewash my flannel so that it shrinks up as much as possible before I cut into it. When I DO pre-wash, I prewash everything--fabric AND batting.
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AngelinaMaria
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09-28-2011 06:01 AM