I need to pre-shrink Warm & Natural Batting
 

I do not usually pre-shrink my batting but I am doing a quilt that I do not want the antique look to. I have washed the cotton fabric and then I have a small panel that is going into the quilt that will not shrink. I have a newer washing machine that does not have an agitator. Do you think it would be ok to wash it on gentle cycle in this type of washing machine?

The Warm Company advises against pre-washing W&N in the washing machine, but they don't mention machines without agitators. Is there any reason why you want a cotton batting, rather than a poly batting, which wouldn't shrink anyway?

I hate working with poly batting, I just do not get along with it.....LOL It is for a family member that wants cotton batting.

Do not wash it in the machine unless you can bypass the agitation cycle. Even without the old agitator it will end up a pile of mush. I know ��

I do not know whst your machineeill do, but on my 1990's maytag,

I csn fill it with hot water - turn it off for awhile and ldt the batting soak for a while and set it to spin.

Then I dry it in the dryer on gentle

My w&n is probably over 15 years old. It might be different now.

I agree with just letting it soak, then spinning out the water. I would use regular dryer heat, as it is the dryer heat that will ultimately shrink the damp batting. Assuming your Warm and Natural is needlepunched through scrim (I'm not sure that it all is, but I think all of their cotton batting is), it is tough enough to hold up to the dryer. Just be sure you use a dryer big enough for the batting. If you have to pack the batting in the dryer you can end up with burns in the batting because it doesn't have enough space to tumble. If your dryer is too small, I would load the soaked and spun-out batting into a laundry basket and take it to a commercial laundry and use one of their large dryers.

I had to wash one piece of Warm and Natural twice - my cat "anointed" it - and it came out fine.

Actually - the amount of shrinkage was minimal (do any of you have any idea how hard that was for me to say????)

I like to measure fabrics (whatever gets dunked) before and after - just to see what it does.

to be safe maybe you can just soak it in the bathtub, wring it gently and then put it in the dryer

This is what I would do.

I preshrink Warm and Natural batting by putting it in the washer with hot water and then stopping the washer so it just soaks. I wait until it is fully wet in about a half hour and then switch the machine to spin. Do not agitate it. Then I put it in the dryer until it is dry. I like the softness of the batting after it has been preshrunk.