Originally Posted by
SandyG
Thank you all. What I meant by ripples, was the edges of the fabric sometimes come out wavy. I'm going to give the vinegar and water a try. Thanks again for your help.
The selvedges tend to shrink differently from the fabric. Even if not prewashing, ironing with steam can cause the fabric to shrink slightly (but not the selvedges). This is why you need to cut the selvedges off!
Fabric shrinks differently when washed by itself vs being washed in a quilt. The quilting stitches make the 3 layers of the quilt "as one", with batting limiting how much any given fabric can shrink. In other words, with moderate quilting, batting will not allow fabric to shrink more than it does. This does not apply when quilting lines are far apart -- such as 10" apart -- because within that 10" a fabric can shrink more than the batting. When quilting lines are 5" apart or closer, I have not seen any problem with fabric shrinkage even when fabric was not prewashed.