I have been folding according like and pinning both edges and the fraying is minimal. I don't unpin till I've lightly dried them. I was surprised how it controled the fraying.

I find that if I take an old art paintbrush and give the raw edges a quick touch of no-fray they don't fray at all. Takes just an extra minute or two

I had read here on the a tip about pinking the edges. I don't usually pink the entire edge, but will make cuts along the edge skipping maybe 6-8 inches between. This does cut down considerably on the fraying.

My neice suggested serging raw edgesso shenever I need to pre-wash fabric(any woven) especially flannel, I do the serging first before washing. You can werge cut edges of any fabric a mile a minute so you are wasting little time and saving a lot of fabric. Karen

It never worked for me.

I pink large pieces of fabric and wash smaller pieces in lingerie bags. Minimal fraying, less than a quarter inch on each cut side.

When washing silk or rayon for garments, I ran the cut edges through the rolled hem attachment on my sewing machine. It's essentially a straight stitch done on a tiny double fold of the fabric, so once I got the knack of how to feed it through the rolled hemmer attachment, I could zip through the length in no time. There was absolutely no fraying with rolled hems and I lost a total of one eighth of an inch of fabric on each end.

I read somewhere that it's the agitating in the machine that does most of the fraying, so I use a short cycle and as low an agitation speed as possible. For my machine, it's the Ultra Low-Hand Wash cycle. I've had more success with this than the clipping of corners or pinking the edges. I was quite amazed at the difference.

Absolutely, I never buy 1/4 yd, it seems it always want a little exta for shams, 1 ysd is my absolute least minimum! :D

The serge method looks neat to me. Personally I'm kind of lazy and I just cut off the strings if I prewash. LOL

That is what I do also I oer cast the edges with my serger with just 3 threads and loose and the bottom thread then just pulls out. Never any tangles or knoted fabrics.

The cheep serger thread is well worth the time it saves un tangleing everything. That is how I have done it for many years.

I fold the fabric into a quarter panel, then sew the loose ends together before washing. When done, unsew in front of the tv, fold fabric and file in the fabric closet till use.

Years ago I was taught to fold the material and pin the edges with rust-proof pins. If it is a large amount of material, you will have to refold and repin when drying it. I personally haven't had any trouble with fraying using this method. It takes a little more time, but doesn't get tangled.

I just washed 2 huge loads of fabric(big sale/rain/high humidity). some pcs were scraps. some flannel was less than8" sq.. had hardy any fraying, much less than any load, I've previously washed! I think it was because the washer was filled to the max!--LESS room to move around. I was pleasantly, surprised! I also used my gentle/ slow agitation speed& shorter cycle!