joe'smom

Pre-washing is a very individual thing. Some swear by pe-washing and some swear by not pre-washing. Many people here have said they've mixed pre-washed and not washed with good results. You can pre-wash pre-cut strips by hand and hang to dry with very little fraying. The one time I worked with a jelly roll, I soaked and rinsed by hand, then spun in the machine in a garment bag, then hung to dry. I pre-wash everything because I prefer to have shrinkage take place before stitching, to having it happen after stitching, and I don't mind taking the time to do it.

Lori S

If it were me , my biggest fear would be the fabric bleeding. You can soak them in hot water and hang to dry with out the raveling issue.

ckcowl

You will get many different answers here to the wash/don't wash topic. I never prewash precuts, and I have made lots of quilts that are beautiful that contain fabrics that were prewashed along with ones that were not. The whole prewashing thing is a personal choice.... Not a hard set rule ( even if some folks think it is a mandatory step) I prewash when a fabric smells funky, feels funky, is soiled/has something that needs to be cleaned, or is a bleeder. That's (my) criteria... Others have their own criteria

ManiacQuilter2

I heard on an episode of F&P stating NOT to wash ANY precut fabric because it will not end up being the original cut size.

ShelleyCS

I made a quilt with a batik jelly roll and didn't pre-wash because the lqs told me it would not run. Wrong. I used a slew of color catchers and my kona cream in the quilt came out muddy. If there's any chance of a bleed, I would pre-wash. (Gently, in hot water.) Several times.

joe'smom

That's a good point! If you need the pre-cut fabric to stay that exact size for the pattern you're using, then maybe you shouldn't pre-wash. With the jelly roll I used, it turned out that the width of the strips was not affected enough by washing to cause me problems, and I was still able to use them as 2 1/2" strips.

FroggyinTexas

Law, NO! I tried washing some fat quarters once and after cutting off the frays, there was almost nothing left. Use what you have the way itis and when you wash it after getting finished, put a couple of Color Catchers in the machine and have at it. And welcome to the board from North Texas, 60 miles north of Dallas and 30 miles south of Durant, Oklahoma. froggyintexas

Silver Needle

I am for prewashing everything. This is how I handle precuts with very little fraying or stretching. I have a wood drying rack for clothes. I put like colors together (no more than 1/4 - 1/3 of the jelly roll) in a sink of straight hot water with the proper amount of "Retayne". With a plastic spatula I press up and down on the unrolled strips and gently swish them a little. Let them sit 5 - 10 minutes. Then I keep rinsing with repeated sinks full of straight hot water until the rinse water is clear. Usually 2-3 sink fullls. A few at a time I take them out of the sink and put them into a salad spinner and spin most of the water out. Then I gently untangle them and hang them over the rungs of the clothes rack side by side without overlapping. Let them get almost dry and press dry with a dry iron or press them with Best Press or similar product. Sounds like a lot of work but I have no worries about the darker colors bleeding into lighter on a finished quilt. I do the same thing with fat quarters and all other precuts. A hint on the clothes rack. I bought some plastic tubing about the same size as the rungs. Then I cut a slit in the tubing and snapped it over the rungs. Any excess dark dye will not go into the wood and leach out later to ruin something light. I just wipe off the plastic covered rungs after each use.

bearisgray

Which is - for me - a good rrason to avoid precuts.

paoberle

I would not wash. You will get a lot of fraying and have lots of ironing. I never wash. Just use color catchers when you wash the finished quilt.