Originally Posted by Lady Shivesa
I had heard that you need to serge the edges before washing - is this true?
There are very few things in life that one HAS to do - serging/overcasting the edges of your fabric before washing is one of them.
HOWEVER, I think doing so is worth the effort because one only "loses" 1/8 to 3/16 on each end (that's under the thread - and one can remove the thread if one chooses to) versus up to 3/4 inch (on some fabrics - not many, but some) on each end due to fraying. Plus then one doesn't have to fight with all those threads.
I'm attaching a scan of two washed fabrics - one where the ends were serged - the other where they were not.