Have you prewashed the Hobbs cotton?
 

Reading on the label the shrinkage is up to 5% I've decided I need to prewash this king size batting before I assemble my wedding gift. Has anyone words of wisdom for me?
MaryKatherine

You should really do a search on here and hear the mess that others have had when they've tried to prewash batting. It's not a good thing. You would be wasting your money from what I've read because after that; you have to throw it away.

I'm not familiar with that particular batting but does it have a scrim? If not, I would think it would be difficult (impossible?) to wash or machine dry. I personally have not pre-washed any of my bats, but once I doused it with water and dried it ... not so much for the shrinkage but to get the wrinkles out. That was a W&N bat.

If it has a scrim I would wet it while flat (in the tub perhaps) then dry it. I have a top load machine and I can't fathom the mess I would have if I machine washed it with an agitator (even on the "delicate cycle which agitates just a few turns then stops for a few minutes).

If it doesn't have a scrim ... I wouldn't wash or dry it.

5% is an awful lot, even for cotton.

Warm and Natural washes and dries beautifully.

I've also had other bats totally shred like wet Kleenex when they hit water.

Read the label - it should indicate if it can/should be washed - or not.

3-5% is standard shrinkage for a cotton batting. Is this an all-cotton Hobbs batting? If it's 80/20, then I honestly would not worry; I've never gotten more than a soft 3% or so shrinkage. I have heard of other people presoaking (not washing) Hobbs 80/20 and drying in a dryer to shrink before layering, but I've never done it.

If you don't want any shrinkage, I would switch to a polyester batting.

I've only used Hobbs 80 cotton 20 poly batting and have washed it without any problems.

Wash isn't the correct term because you just soak the batting in your washing machine, DO NOT AGITATE, then turn to the spin cycle. I don't put the batting into the dryer, I just lay it on the floor or over the dining room table to dry complety. Putting a plastic sheet or tablecloth down first is a good idea.

Throw it in the dryer in low with a damp towel for 10 minutes...as long as it's 100% natural fibers.

This is the Heirloon Natural with scrim binder
I don't mind shrinkage but I don't want the quilt to shrink, hense the prewash
MK

You mean don't immerse it in water? Just add a damp (wet) towel?

Last year I took a quilt to a long arm quilter to finish for me and prewashed the flannel (good quilt quality) and pre-soaked the Warm & White batting. I thought it looked okay but when she looked at it, we realized that it had been felted by putting it in the dryer (I've not had troubles with the Warm & Natural batting before and I always pre-soak & dryer dry it before quilting them on my Bernina). Anyway, she advised me to not pre-soak batting.