I always prewash my fabric. I don't want dirt, bedbugs, chemicals or allergens coming into my home. I also don't want bleeding fabric or surprise shrinkage.
Anyway, I'm so GLAD I'm a anal, prewasher. I happened upon a Craigs List ad last week for fabric. I traveled about 45 mins. and found a granddaughter selling her grandmother's stash. I guess grandmom had passed away and they were storing all her fabric in huge garbage bags out in a storage shed. I got 8 HUGE bags of fabric for $40!!! About 80% of it was quilting cottons. The rest of it I freecycled. I found a large spider in one of the bags and thought that was the worst thing that would happen. I spent the day washing and drying it, but left about 10 yards of fabric in my laundry hamper that I didn't have time to get to. I pulled it out today to wash it, and at the bottom of the hamper and I am not joking, were about 50 maggots. I about died. The fabric was all clean looking, no smells or dead things in it. But something had laid eggs in the bags...maybe a fly or moth or catepillar. Bringing the bags into my warm house caused them all to hatch. I quickly washed and dried the remaining fabric and fed the maggots to my chickens. Can you imagine what my sewing room would be like right now if I hadn't prewashed and dried this fabric???? I get the willies thinking about it. <shudder>
Another reason to add to my growing list of reasons as to why I always prewash. I don't want maggots....ewwww.