I wash all new fabrics by soaking them in hot water in the sink and hanging them to dry. I do it this way because I hate strings. I do a lot of recycling and those get washed in the washing machine before I cut them into fabric lengths. Everything 1/2 yard or less gets ironed and folded on a 5X5 cardboard. Larger sizes go on a 12X12 cardboard. Really big stuff is folded normally.