My current "ritual" for what I do to most of my fabrics before cutting them ( I tend to have more than one piece of fabric that needs to be treated at a time.)
1. Serge or overcast the raw edges. I use a 3-thread serger with a medium length setting. The thread is fairly easy to remove if I want to " rescue/save/ use" that approximate 1/8 inch of fabric. It takes less time to serge/overcast than to trim raveled edges and fight with the strings. Besides, one can lose up to 1/2 inch of fabric - or more - from raveling.
2. next, I will be soaking the pieces in hot water ( it cools down while setting around)
With a few drops of Dawn dish detergent added. like colors together, so if one piece has issues with the dye, it won't be a major problem. Dark greens with dark greens, etc. I do take a look after a few minutes to check on the color of the water. It the water has become intensely colored, I check to see which piece of fabric the dye is coming from. Then that piece gets more soaking and rinsing until I consider it " usable" or it gets tossed. For soaking, I use big bowls, kitchen sink, kettles, whatever.
my criteria for "usable" - can it be washed with white or pale yellow without staining them? Then i wash the fabrics on a gentle cycle and dry them until just dry. Fold immediately. I do iron the pieces right before cutting them.
i feel that the agitation from washing and drying is what makes new fabric look " used" - so I try to keep that to a minimum.
I feel that I should have treated (soaked) the fabrics enough so that I do not feel the need to use color catchers, synthrapol, or rerayne . I assume that whoever gets the finished item has never heard of those products.
With all that - I was jusr using a multi- colored striped piece of fabric that had only 1/8inch red stripes that bled - I think it was from my days of not soaking for a couple of hours before washing. I was unpleasantly surprised.
Is this "a bit of a bother"? Yes, but dealing with a bleeder or major shrinker is a much bigger bother to me
I want to know what my fabric is like and how it behaves before I cut it.