I recently ordered fabric from Hancock Fabric to make a 9 patch sailboat quilt for my grandson. I usually love the crispness new unwashed fabric but since it's for a toddler I figured I better wash it. The order was actually sent to my mom's house--she's home all day and I work-- and when I picked it up I showed her what I got. She remarked that I had a lot of sewing of fabric edges before washing. I told her I had seen several posts on this really cool message board that I've become a member of, and that quite a few say all I have to do is clip the corners and it won't ravel. She looked at me like I had 5 heads and they all had purple and orange hair. She said in all her years of sewing she had never heard of such a thing and she used to work in a fabric store also.

So.... tell me this really does work before I try it! I really don't want my Mom to be right.

It's not foolproof but it helps a whole lot.

I have to say it didn't work for me. I tried it and still had a lot of unraveling. I have yet to find something that will work.

Hate to tell you this but Mom is always right...well, mostly. :wink:

Regarding the clipping, I've tried it and it helped some but there was
still some fraying. If you don't have a serger, you could just zigzag.
If you bought lots of fat quarters just sew them together like one whole
cloth. Of course, separate the darks from the lights, if this is applicable.

I didn't find that it helped much in the old days, when I prewashed. Now I never prewash unless it's flannel; leaves me with a lot more time to actually quilt! I wash all my quilts in Synthrapol after they are made, before they are given away or used, and have never had a problem.

I do test fabrics that I suspect might bleed by dropping into a glass of water for awhile, then rubbing against white fabric. If the dye bleeds or crocks, I will wash it in Retayne and test again before using in a quilt.

Nope!

I am looking into buy a pinking blade for my rotary cutter :D:D:D

EasyPeezy, the sad thing is I do have a serger. I have finally taken it out of the box after 3 years of being intimidated by it and it has not wanted to work. The tech at the fabric store said an easy fix might be to change thread. I did that today and it serged beautifully on a scrap. I got out my new fabric and it doesn't work. Can't tell if it's the needle or one of the loopers and I even put different colors of thread to hopfully help in determining the problem. None of the stitches hold in the fabric and the thread winds up a big mess so off to the shop it goes Monday if I can't figure something out tomorrow. But I resorted to the trusty zigzag on my sewing machine. Good way to use up some weird colors of thread my mom passed on to me.

Yep, I think it works great.

I always serge or zig zag the ends and I wash all fabric the FQ I usually do by hand.I think I would be in trouble if the drains got plugged with thread!