Prewash fabric pieces?
Hi. I'm wondering whether I should prewash small pieces I'll be using to make a quilt. Some are factory precuts, such as some strips, some are various sizes and shapes. I prewashed some small pieces recently and they frayed terribly!
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most of us do not wash pre cuts. some have put charms into lingerie bags and that helps with the fraying a bit. still would need to be pressed well after wash. small cuts should work well as they come.
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I hand wash small pieces and use a salad spinner to get the water out. Lay flat on a towel to dry or iron dry. If you do not know the fibre content of the pieces, ironing my melt them.
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salad spinner here too! double rinse
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My approach is to hand wash and give them a good long soak (hours or overnight) to let any loose dye get free of the fabric. (If a lot of dye comes out, I do a second wash and soak.) Rinse thoroughly, squeeze out what water I can (I don't bother with tight wringing.) and hang to dry. Iron while still damp. It takes a little more hand-on time then just throwing things into the washing machine, but there's no fraying with this method.
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Washing or not, is really a personal choice, I don't pre-wash my fabrics and have never had a problem with them as far as quilting, now, if you're talking making clothing out of the fabrics, then definitely I pre-wash.
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I soak and rinse small pieces by hand, then put in a mesh bag and spin dry in the machine, hang to dry.
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I only prewash flannel and yardage - never precuts because of the fraying. I am told you can stay stitch the edges to prevent the problem.
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If you put them in your washer, be prepared to find a bunch of threads afterwards. I starch pretty much everything before I cut into them including pre-cuts but I dip them in my starch mixture and then put them thru my home-made wringer so small pre-cuts come thru almost flat and smooth. The rest of them I hang to dry and them press. Even putting yardage thru a wash machine is difficult due to all the loose ends becoming a ball of threads. Tried trimming the corner off as suggested and it didn't pan out well. I've serged the cut ends once upon a time but that's a lot of wasted thread and time but it did work. Again, now I just put thru my starch mixture and call it good.
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I prewash all my fabrics - yardage and precuts. There is so much dirt and chemicals in fabric from the manufacturer. I hand applique so I use a lot of small pieces and a salad spinner works great.
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