I know there have been several posts in the past on this subject, but I need to add this to all others. Sat. when I was in Hancocks, my husband had to leave the store, because something in the store was bothering his allergies. The floor manager was cutting my fabric at the time and related this story to me about washing fabric. She has a friend who was sewing and cleaning up in the evening when she scratched her finger on the needle in her machine. The skin wasn't broken, so she didn't think anything about it. The finger begin to show some infection a day or so later and she went to her doctor. He put her in the hospital with a staff infection. He asked her what she was doing and when she told him, the Dr. told her to always wash all of her fab. before using it in any way, because of the dyes and what ever else might be on it, since most of the fab. comes from overseas now. Their processes may not be the most sanitary. She spent 5 days in the hospital and almost lost her finger the manager told me. She (the manager) saw the finger after the hospital stay and said it looked horrible, her finger had split open and really looked bad. SO PLEASE folks take the time and effort to WASH your fab. before using it. We just can't be too careful, and we don't want any of our other sewing friends to have any problems. I almost always wash mine, but I certainly will wash any of it now.