IF you are a wash/soak your fabrics before cutting person. . .
 

IF you are a wash/soak your fabrics before cutting person - - -

Do you measure the size of your fabrics before and after dunking them?

I've found that fabrics do not shrink/relax at the same rate. Some stay the same size - a very few have stretched - some only shrink widthwise - some shrink lengthwise - and a very few shrink/contract in both directions.

One of the pieces that shrank the most was a Roc-Lon tea-dyed muslin that said "pre-shrunk"

As long as I wash and dry first, I don't have to worry about what the shrinkage rate is when I am ready to cut.....so, no, I don't measure.

I never measure it I put it in the washer as soon as I get home with it. I always buy a little more than I will need to make up for any shrinkage. If it looks like it has shrunk to bad I measure before I start cutting to see if I need to buy more.

I wash all that yard goods I purchase and dry them to almost dry then hang them up and finger press them as I take them out of the dryer love the selvedges if I don't tidy them up a bit. I try to do this when I bring them in the house. Then, they are ready except for ironing with starch when I begin a project. Now, I have purchased charms, layer cakes, and jelly rolls and followed most of the advice saying "don't wash". I like the convenience that I don't have to cut them however, I found when I ironed them while piecing, some of the strips from the jelly roll shrank almost 1/3" after I had pieced them, was not happy. Fixed it but learned. Still I will buy them but learned...a lot.

I'm a prewasher/drier, too. Although I don't buy the precuts, could you fill a container (glass or stless steel bowl--holds the heat) with the hottest water you can get from your tap; put your precuts in--maybe sort out the colors so none would bleed onto others; let soak for a 15 minutes or so; then to dry place them in a lingerie drying bag and toss in the dryer.

I don't care about how much it shrinks, just that all the chemicals are washed out and that it is preshrunk!!!!!

No, I don't measure the fabric before I wash and dry and after. I usually buy at least 3 yards of the fabric, so if it does shrink, I have extra.

No, I don't measure before hand but I am pretty religious about pre-washing and drying. As long as everything has shrunk up for the most part. My thought process is I don't want unwashed and washed scraps in the same bin. I just think everything turns out better when fabrics are washed. :) Just me though.

I wash and dry my fabrics when I get them home. I fold with a 6 x 24" ruler.
I never soak them, I don't worry about shrinkage.

I have never measured so I don't know by how much the fabrics have shrunk. Often I can tell that they have (by the feel, by distortion at the selvedge edge, by the whole thing ending up cattywampus), but the only time I measured was when I had my Backing Saga last January, when the durned thing lost 11%.

I recently bought a set of 10" squares because I needed a lot of a particular color, but ony a little in any particular pattern. They were black so I soaked them in hot water with a squirt of dish detergent until they didn't lose any more color (several rinses!!), then dried them on a rack. I was cutting strip sets out of them, so I thought I'd just stack 'em up and let it rip...but nope, they had shrunk at several different rates. Only two out of 25 didn't shrink at all; most shrunk at least 1/2" in one dimension and several lost 3/4" in both dimensions. I had factored shrinkage into my cutting plan, so it didn't undo my project, but it did leave me shaking my head!

Alison