Storing fabric
 

I am cutting donated fabric to make quilt kits for Childrens' Hospital. Many pieces in this batch have faded lines, I'm assuming from how it was stored. It's taking me much longer to cut this, since I have to cut around the faded areas, and I'm losing some fabric.

Do you think these fade marks are from sun exposure, or can any light exposure do this? It's pretty obvious it's from how it was folded, based on where the lines are. (Folded in 4ths lengthwise, and then in 3rds across the width.)

Thanks

Indoor light exposure has certainly fade things for me in the past. It's not as fast as sunlight but I've had it happen. It may just be the old style light bulbs though, because I haven't had it happen in a long time so I don't know about newer bulbs.

any light probably is bad for folded fabrics. my son is to put shelves in my closet so i can put my stash in there. some is there now but some also under my cutting table next to the window!

That hasn't happened to me, but my fabric is always stored in cupboards. Light exposure is a problem. Changing the fold lines from time to time will eliminate this problem. Very important when storing quilts also.

Any light causes fading. Direct sunlight fades the fastest, but any kind of light (including light bulbs in the house and flourescents) also causes fading.

i know from my personal experience that the fading can happen to fabric stored on open shelves out of direct sun. ambient electric light source caused some of my fabric to fade along the fold in my last sewing room. i hung a white sheet over it after i saw damage starting and that helped. a quilter that added a quilt to my groups little quilt show a few years ago was dismayed to see how faded her quilt was. it had been hanging on wall of her living room. i asked how long it had hung there and told her of my experience. her quilt was a little over one year old and looked like it had been hanging for several years. she was broken hearted and said she wished she had known. it was a gift from a friend,

I have received such faded donations for my charity quilts too, and I tell you I am thrilled! First I am sad it happened to the donar, she could have trashed the damaged fabric, but then I am glad she thought of me. I can cut around the sun damaged parts, to make plenty of scrappy charity quilts. I make QOV blocks to be quilted every month and baby NICU finished quilts every month for AnnaQuilts on this board in the "request" section. I am grateful for anything...old, ugly or damaged....I can make it pretty! Jane

I've seen it happen to bolts of fabric at the store. These were older inventory that had been there for some time. They had a thin faded line on the top of the bolt. The fade didn't show on the inside of the fold and the rest of the fabric was fine.