I guess I'm an odd person out. I prewash all my fabric by hand using Woolite in the kitchen sink. Fill one side with warm soapy water, put a several pieces of fabric of like color in (I mostly buy 1/4 - 1/2 yard pieces), swish it around for a couple of minutes, pick out each piece, squeeze out excess water/soap, drop into the other side of sink to rinse in very warm water until no more color bleeds out. Then I open up each piece, lay a bunch on thick toweling, top with another thick towel, roll up and twist the towels to soak up excess water. Then it's off to the ironing board. There will be a few strings, but nothing like you get in a washing machine. I really wish I could find an inexpensive, small (bucket size) wringer for getting the excess water out. This may be a slower, more labor intensive method, but I enjoy "getting intimate" with my fabric this way and feel like the pieces end up less distorted in shape this way.