i read on here to wash fabric inside a pillowcase to help keep it from ravelling. i am in the process of doing this now.

i don't remember reading if you are to take it out of the pillowcase when putting in the dryer.

dumb question, i know.

i was thinking if you didn't it would take a long time to dry, but on the other hand i don't think it would tangle as bad.

could anyone tell me what they do, and thank you in advance.

any help from you experts would be much appreciated.

You might hang it to dry.

I would leave it in the pillowcase if it's small pieces

I hope more people comment on this - I always pre-wash and FQ's take a beating. Never thought about using a pillowcase. I wonder if a lingerie bag would work. ???

I would wash small pieces by hand and just spin them dry in the washer. If you dry larger pieces in a pillow case, they are going to come out very wrinkled. For me, not a problem as I starch all of my fabric.

thank you everyone for your replies to by question.
just thought i would let you know what i did.
i put my fabric in a zippered pillow protecter case.
in one there was a 5m., 1.5m., and 1m. pieces. in the other there was 1m. and 2m. pieces.
this was 2 seperate loads.
the fabric did not tangle and did not ravel very much, although i did snip a small triangle off of each corner.
i started drying them still in the case, but then took them out to finish drying. the 5m. piece did tangle a bit, but not too bad.
i dried them to the perma-press setting.
i then ironed them dry.
i know i will wash future fabric this way.
ps. next time i will rotary cut to straighten and then snip off the small triangle.
hope this helps others.

I spin dry mine, and then iron it while it is damp.

Thanks for the information! I usually wash yardage and it does tangle!

hope you try the pillow protecter case. i was very pleased.

I overcast the raw edges before washing - even the fat quarters.

I use either a narrow longish zig-zag - or the longest narrowest serger stitch to overcast the edges.

About the most fabric I lose is about an 1/8 of an inch on each edge.

I just toss the pieces in the dryer. No tangles. Really long pieces tend to wad up or ball up and I check every so often and unwad it and then put the fabric back in the dryer. The fabric is more apt to wrinkle if the dryer is overloaded.

Narrow pieces - 1/4 yard or less - seem prone to tangling - it might be good to put them in a case before putting them in the dryer.

Tiny pieces I just hand wash and air dry - I don't (usually) overcast them - and put them either on a towel or on those meshy sweater drying things. They could be put in a bag and spun dry and then dried in the dryer. Might have some fraying, tho.

I put small pieces in a bag for delicates and the larger pieces I wash and hang to dry. I have a drying rack and I drape it over that and just re position the material every couple hours to speed the drying.Ii use to but I seldom machine dry any of them, I still press all of it.
I tried the cutting the corners and it didn't seem to do anything for me, it still unraveled lots.

i put all my fabric in a pillow case to wash and i take it out of the pillow case before putting in the dryer.

I use a salad spinner to wash small amounts that I hand wash, it is one dedicated to just fabric :wink:
Lots of great tips here

thanks everyone, lots of good suggestions.

I also baste the cut ends (WOF) before washing and drying..helps a lot.......

I started washing in a pillowcase and dried in one but I found the material to be really wrinkled and take a long time to iron. Now I wash in the pillowcase but take out to dry, this works so much better and less ironing.

I like to wash and dry the fabric before cutting to see what it wants to do naturally.

I very seldom even try to "straighten" a fabric by pulling on it diagonally now. It just seems to go back to whatever it wanted to do after being washed.

I try to check the grainlines of the fabric BEFORE buying now. Just because it was cut perpendicularly to the fold is no guarantee that the crosswise grainline is actually perpendicular to the selvages any more.

Sometimes fabric gets pulled off-grain in the processing.