Originally Posted by amandasgramma
There may be no right way or wrong way, but I'm opting for washing from now on!!! As much as I HATE washing and ironing them, I decided to do a test swatch and see what happened. I had a kit I was getting ready to sew. I cut 1" squares off each fabric and wet them, then ironed to dry. ONE of the 6 fabrics shrank almost 1/4"!!!!!! I had plenty to do the kit but I'm wondering how it would have looked had I not pre-washed! :shock:
I attended a class with Harriet Hargrave, who does not prewash fabrics. She said she wanted to demonstrate to her students that shrinkage is not a problem when machine quilting is done properly (meaning quilting lines the appropriate distance apart for the Hobbs 80/20 batting she used). She used flannel that had not been prewashed for the quilt! She showed it to us, and it was not the shrunken mess I would have expected. She said that the machine quilting stabilizes the fabric.
I do not prewash fabrics, but will test a piece in cold water if I am suspicious of its colorfastness. I always wash my quilts after they are done and for this wash I use Synthrapol just to make sure that, if there are any bleeds, the excess dye will rinse away rather than settle in other fabrics. In my opinion, it's also important to pay attention to when the wash cycle has completed so fabrics aren't sitting against other fabrics for a long period of time while wet. Knock on wood, but so far I haven't had any problem with bleeding or unwanted shrinkage. (I use cotton batting and like the soft crinkled look it produces; wouldn't work for someone who likes a flat contemporary look.)