Originally Posted by
NikkiLu
Batiks MUST be prewashed. I recently purchased some absolutely beautiful batiks from a member here and just assumed that they were not prewashed - so dunked them in my pure white dish pan with a drop of soap and they did bleed - not a whole lot - but my water was the color of tea. When I emailed the lady whom I purchased them from and told her that they had arrived and how much I loved them, I said that I had just washed them and they did bleed a little. She was surprised because she had already washed them!!!
When I made my daughter's memory quilt and used a batik as the sashing fabric, I washed it two times in the regular washing machine and the color catchers came out very dark. Then I decided at almost 2 hours per cycle, it was taking too long, so I did as some suggested here and just put it in a bucket, sink, with water and let it stand there. I did this over and over for several days until it almost didn't run at all. I warned her when she washes it to use a color catcher and that the whites might absorb the dye from the sashing. She said she's okay with it since the color of the sashing was her choice of fabric and she loves it.
So, to give you my opinion...I've never had a problem with new fabrics except for 1. colors here in Europe--then reds and darks are very, very unstable. and 2. batiks...I have a dark pink that I'd like to use and treated it the same as I did my daughter's sashing fabric.
But most of the time, no, I don't wash new fabric first.