Thread: Washing Fat qtrs

That includes me, too!

I know a lot of you dont prewash, but one of our posters not too long ago posted a pix of a quilt (I believe she said she spent over 1200 hours on and it was ruined by one of the fabrics bleeding)I always do, as for the fraying I read a tip to cut the 4 corners of the fabric on a 45 clip to lessen or prevent.:)

I pre-wash fat quarters in the sink and spin them in my salad spinner. No fraying.

I have found serging the edges works best for me, then i can tell the difference between washed and unwashed.


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I won't say that I never wash or that I always wash fabric. But I recently did a class for the trip around the world and the teacher wanted the fabric washed and starched first. If I wash some of the fabric for a quilt I wash it all so that hopefully it'll all shrink at the same level.
Yesterday I had gotten more fabric for the back and I had heard that by cutting triangle out of the corners would make it fray less; it worked. I was so happy; I had tons of fraying w/the same fabric that I used w/the front of the quilt. Now when ever I wash I'll snip first. Have to try that on flannel

I prewash batting, FQ's, jelly rolls, everything. Thats just me. I never used to until I had some episodes with dye running, shrinkage, and the yuck factor of not knowing if the fabric was clean or treated with chemicals.

When I bring my fabric home it goes right to the laundry room. It doesn't come into the sewing room until it's washed.

When I bring my fabric home it goes right to the laundry room. It doesn't come into the sewing room until it's washed.

Originally Posted by carolaug

I just washed 50 fat qtrs. I put them in a mesh bag when I washed them in the washing machine. I emptied the mesh bag into the dyer. I just took them out. very little fraying. couple a strings. The fabric is all quilt fabric which I think makes the difference.

I wish I would've read this post last week. I wanted to hurriedly wash a few FQs over the weekend, so I put them in the washer with some permanent press clothes, no bag. It took longer to cut the strings out of everything than it did for the washing machine to wash and rinse them.

Originally Posted by Aunt Sue

I prewash everything....always.

so do I pre-wash every thing. I do not want any surprises happening on a finished quilt.