I am not nice to my fabrics when I bring them home (quilting cottons). I make a lot of charity quilts and I never know to whom they will be given - So o o - I fling them in the washing machine (color sorted of course), load it with regular laundry detergent, wash on warm, and set the cycle at permapress. If the fabric is good fabric and well dyed, it will survive anything - no coddling necessary. I do use color catchers and they have saved me a lot of money and agony by preventing running dyes and I have had bleeding from every color. Bottom line: I prewash ALL of my fabrics, dry and iron. I use starch when I am ready to use that fabric in a quilt