can it really shrink 10" UPDATE
 

I bought 3.5 yds of 118" backing fabric, it was crammed into a small box so rather than iron I washed. As soon as it came out of the dryer I put it on my frame so it would be stretched and not wrinkled, when I went to load the top which I knew was 108" the were the same size! Well fabric.com can't take it back because I washed it but did give me 10$ credit but now I wonder , is it possible that it shrunk THAT much? I guess I'll try again and not wash because I don't want it pieced.
I have to add that the girl did offer to send me enough to piece it to fit at no charge and last week I ordered some 1yd pieces, one had a "Jackpot, you got the end of the bolt" sticker, I measured it and it was 3.5 inches longer, no big deal but another one was 17" longer!
I guess from now on if it's important I will measure before I do anything else.
NEW TEST RESULTS
I bought another 3.5 yds of the same fabric different color, ( I really didn't care for the rust color after seeing it in person) it measured exactly 118", I cut off 10 inches, washed and dried, it measured 110"! it wasn't quite dry yet so I guess it really can shrink 10" in the width, the length was barely noticeable! So.... since most of my top hasn't been washed nor has my cotton batting, I'm going to quilt it and cross my fingers when I put it in the wash and hope it all goes at pretty much the same rate...... we shall see.

by chance, were they able to measure a piece from the original bolt to see if it was 118" to start... maybe it wasn't. i washed some standard size yardage once and it shrunk 3% in one direction and 6% in the other.

That does sound high, almost 10% shrinkage. I guess measure first.... Now you have me wondering if some of my 118" wide fabric is short too...some of it is from them too. I don't always use the full width so I wouldn't necessarily have noticed.

Same thing almost happened to me. The backing wasn't the size said to be. Dh laughs at me because when I order something I record on video (past 5 years) after being ripped off in past of merchandise and still having to pay for it. I always measure or check before washing so I can determine shrinkage. the only thing I have had bad shrinkage was an accident with a knit sweater that was thrown into a load of bath linen and washed in hot water. Sick.

forgot to mention, I asked her how I could be sure it wouldn't happen again, she said when I find what I want I can call and request that someone in the warehouse measure it, I said but will they actually measure it or just read what's printed on the end, she assured me that they would actually measure it. I'm going to choose the same fabric but another color...stay tuned.

i can't help but wonder if they accidentally grabbed a bolt of 108".
i have never seen even the lowest grade fabric shrink that much.

Patrice may have the answer!!

I recently purchased 115" backing from them for my 108" quilt, I also washed and dried mine (hot water, hot dryer - like I always do), then pressed it and folded it and brought to the long armer with my quilt. Good news is that my quilt is back and I can see that the backing was indeed wide enough.

Sorry ... I don't remember what brand name my fabric was. When I get home tonight I'll see if there is something printed on the selvege as I haven't trimmed it to bind yet.

I also think they may have grapped the wromg bolt.

however - I have had some 42 inch fabfic shrink to 39 inches, so it is possible.

I would consider that much shrinkag to be defectivr. I think I would call again and ask for anager or supervixor. how would one know it would shtink like that by looking at it? do you still have the paperwork ?

I have had some pretty bad shrinkage but never that bad. I would surly measure before I wash again.

I wondered this too. If you know the mfg, you could do a bit of searching & see what widths that particular fabric came in.

That is why I pre wash everything. I don't want any surprises.

How much did the length shrink?

if it's the same weave, you'll likely have the same shrinkage

So, if they measure it, and the next piece shrinks, what have you gained?

I have not taken it off the frame yet to measure the length, I ordered more of the same in a different color, waiting for them to get back to me on the true width, I won't prewash this time but will measure it myself.
I too don't think it could have been the 118" to start with, but they don't show it to come in anything but 118"

Wow that is a lot of shrinkage if indeed it was 118" to begin with. But perhaps you are lucky you found out BEFORE you used it--you would have had a major crinkly look on the front if the back shrunk that much! The quilting would have helped some but I wouldnt be happy at all.

I have found that you need to measure any fabrics you purchased whether from a local store or online. I've had some fabrics come to me so off measured by a yard or more recently. This makes me wonder how many of my fabrics were miss measured in the past that I didn't check. Thank goodness the stores are good enough to make things right for you most of the times.

Sorry this happened to you! I would be really upset if I had that happen to me. But I don't think I would want it to shrink like that after it was quilted, so I'm not sure that your plan to reorder and not wash it is such a great idea. Let us know what you decide to do and how it comes out ok? I would hate to see all the work you put into the top ruined because of a backing!

I am going to measure my quilt-back fabric. Sorry this happened but Thank you for the information.

I would bet hard money they cut from 108" fabric. And the fact that they agreed to send more makes me believe that they knew that. If a brand of fabric was shrinking 10", they would go out of business. Also- if it shrank 10" widthwise, think how much it should have shrunk lengthwise!!

That is really a lot of shrinkage for one piece of fabric. Bummers. Can you imagine how your quilt would have looked if you hadn't washed it before you quilted it? Oh my, I'm picturing a very small scrunched up quilt that now will fit a twin size bed. LOL (of course it wouldn't be funny if it did happen)

However, it does sound like fabric.com gave you excellent customer service in trying to rectify the problem. As they say "stuff happens."

It used to really frustrate me when I would buy fabric from JoAnn's. I would often buy fabric on speculation (for my ever growing stash pile) and would put it away. When It came time to use it, I would wash it in hot water/hot dryer and I started noticing that my yard of fabric was no longer a yard -- it would be anywhere from 2-4" shorter. Since I buy fabric from other quilt stores and fabric stores, I didn't catch on to where it was coming from. One day I found a stash of fabric still in the bags from JoAnn's (most of it was Christmas fabric, probably from the season before) and since I was working on Christmas gifts I washed most of it and used it all right away.

That's when I found out which fabric store had the fabric that shrunk so much. I measured the fabric and some pieces only measured 35 1/2". For quite a while there, I noticed that when they measured out the fabric they would actually stretch the fabric a bit. And then when they clipped it, they would sometimes would change hands, put their thumbs back where it was supposedly at the yard mark - then they would put the fabric back down and cut the yard in that divit they have on the cutting board. Also, depending on how busy the store was, they would do this really fast and were a little sloppy with their cutting. For instance, if they were really going fast, when they opened the fabric bolt to measure it, sometimes they wouldn't notice that they piece they were cutting was shorter on the top portion of the fabric, even though the bottom of the fabric measured the full 36".

A lot of fabric stores give you a skosh more than the yard you are buying to help with the natural shrinking of washing. Not JoAnn's. After that I started watching them very closely. They have seemed to relax their grip on cutting the fabric, however, once in a while I come across an old-timer with that tight grip on the fabric. If I am not sure that I got a full cut, (since I fold all of my own faric for them anyway) I will measure it out right in front of them. I am not shy about that at all. If it doesn't measure up, I will ask them to remeasure and cut me a new piece when they find that it is shy of amount asked for. After all these years I have had to do it at least a dozen times, and not all of it happened at JoAnn's. I just say "buyer beware." If your pattern calls for a yard and you only get 35 1/2", that can really screw everything up. Especially if you are on a quilting retreat up in the mountains and the closest quilt store is 15 miles away down the windie mountain road - in the rain - Yes that really happened to me. It was a white knuckle trip...

When i buy fabric I do expect to pay for what I want - but I was rather shocked when a LQS that I would go to on a fairly regular basis was going to charge me for the full price on the 3 extra inches left at the end of the bolt. Really? 1/12th of a yard? I almost asked who they shorted to get that small of an amount. I politely declined and started going elsewhere after that. Up until that point I was in there at least once a month for some reason or another. I even bought a large machine from them - but that just ticked me off. It was only $.75 or $1.00 - I am sure they made much more than that on all the fabric I was buying that day, and if it was the only piece of fabric I was buying that day it probably would not have set me off, put I was buying quite a bit and then to pull that just got to me.

I tend to agree with the others. I'll bet they grabbed the wrong size. I've had flannel shrink that much but not a good cotton.