sewbeadit

I never prewash my fabrics, well maybe not ever. This time I had some large scraps that were sent to me in a scrap swap and I wanted to use them, but they had me questioning if I should pre wash them or not, as they seemed to be heavy in dye. The one piece was blue and very pretty and seemed to be an artist hand dyed fabric and was very stiff. I thought for sure it would bleed. Then the other was about a 12" square batik that was a very dark purple and was stiff as well. So I put them in hot soapy water in a bowl. As soon as the purple one hit the water it was bleeding bright pink dye! It bled and bled, I even put a color catcher in the bowl and let it sit over night. The color catcher was bright pink and so was the water, I took them out threw out the color catcher and redid the hot water on the fabric and the fabric came out clear. So I am using it. The blue hand dyed looking piece never bled a bit. So weird.

So just to say that you never know till you check them out if you should pre wash. All of my batiks will be checked before using! I know there is always a lot of discussion about prewashing or not and thought someone may be interested in this little experiment!