well, honestly I don't know about the fabric softener. I got the shirts from my sister (my nephew's) just like I go all of the other shirts from her. I would think that they all would have been washed the same (whether with fabric softener or without) I don't know how much quilting I am going to do just yet - but some of these have logos so I won't be quilting too terribly much. So maybe I need to wash them again myself - leave out the fabric softener, so I can eliminate that from the equation. Thanks