Originally Posted by armaynes
Will do, I'm also curious how much it will shrink. This is my first time working with flannel and it's been such a PAIN!
To make it easier to work with next time, I recommend prewashing and drying flannel *twice*, then heavily starching it before you cut. Starch stabilizes flannel and keeps the edges from stretching out of shape as you sew pieces together. To starch, I mix a 1:1 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water, lay the fabric on my kitchen island and "paint" the strach on using a large wall painting brush, throw the saturated fabric in the dryer, then iron with steam.
If you do all this, you won't have to wash your unbound quilt before applying binding, plus the pieces will be much easier to sew together accurately. Washing the quilt after it is bound removes all the starch.