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I prewash in hot water with Retayne, like colors together. I just did a quilt for a client and she asked me to remove a spot where the spray starch had gotten a little thick. I used a damp white cloth and the excess starch was easily removed but so was the BLUE dye on the block. I warned the client so they could take precautions when laundering the quilt.
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I don't pre-wash, but I do test suspicious colors, especially batiks. I have only found a couple that ran over the years, and color catchers usually solve the problem. I did buy a Gee's Bend quilt kit and the fabrics ran a lot. The instructions had a warning about that and it took several washes to stop the running.
Sue |
I pre-wash and iron with sizing before cutting. Although I machine piece, I hand quilt. If I am going to spend 9 months to a year to finish a quilt, then I'm not taking any chances that the fabrics will run or shrink. Besides, I enjoy all the processes of making a quilt, including the ironing and cutting. I'm not one to just want to 'get it done' so I can go on to the next quilt.
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Well back in the day, Mom always said wash your fabric first!! And I always did. Til I started quilting. Most of my quilts have been lighter colors, pinks, lavendars, yellow etc. So I have had no issues with them. None of them have shrunk so far either. I guess I better just count my blessings while I am ahead : )
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I'm not lazy...but at times I am "output challenged"!!!
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I spent too many years, prewashing fabrics & ironing. if I don't have to do it and I can use a color catcher that is what I am going to do! Each to their own I guess. I want to enjoy what I am doing and I have yet to have anything bleed but a batik piece in a scrappy quilt. Not a fan of batiks myself and less now, I like my process that I have in place and no plans to change it. It works for me. I don't mind the cost of color catchers, they do the trick for me. As I said each to their own.
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I always WASH .
I hate to speend soooooo much time on somethings, and see it all runny colors or severely wrinkled or misshapened after it is fiished & then washed. J J |
I use color catchers when I prewash and a medium/hot dryer. I don't like handling the fabric with all those chemicals. If I am not using the fabric immediately, I smooth the fabric and fold. When I am ready to use the fabric, I starch and iron. I starch several times and it makes it feel like new fabric and it is so much easier to handle.
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Enjoyed your recap! Thanks so much for the reminder about the watercolor batiks. I'm about to start a project using that and I do happen to have Synthropol and Retayne on hand. I usually pre-wash also, but I will be paying extra special attention to my batiks. I'm all about preventing irreversible mistakes.
Originally Posted by Lori S
(Post 5596611)
Back when I was learning to sew, Mom tought me to always be suspious of Red , and Purple fabrics for bleading. Since my sewing constisted of garment making preshrinking was manitory. Remember all that gauzy type fabric of the late 60's early 70's looked great on the bolt but shrunk and wrinkled like no other. Learned my lesson the hard way after making a shirt out of that fabric as I did not want the pain of getting all the wrinkles out prior to construction from prewashing. Well after all me work .. only was able to wear it once ... it shrunk about 20 %.
Then came the world of Poly and the need to preshrink was now a thing of the past. .. as was ironing! 100 percent cotton was scorned by fabric stores and it was dirt cheap to buy as no one wanted the fabric that had to be ironed and was going to shrink. Then the rotary cutter was invented and revived the art of quilting , and cotton fabrics became more prevelant and gained popularity. The lessons I learned way back had to be relived if to avoid some of the issues I had associated with garment making. Even though the industry has come far in methods of manufactring and printing... they still have not "solved" the fundimental issues associated with 100 percent cotton fabrics. They do shrink ( it just depends on how much) and no manufacture guarentees against bleeding/running. So understanding the potential issues , I prewash all most all of my fabrics . As for the use of Syntropol or Retayne... when working with batiks specifcally , one wash is often not sufficent to remove the unset dye. This is where my "cheapness" shows.... I would rather spend the small amount of $$ to resolve the issue ONCE and for all than to find out later that the unset dye was not sufficently dealt with the first ime around. Some batiks specifically the watercolor will bleed almost forever till the fabric is faded beyond the appeal it once had. To preserve the original appeal of color depth .. yes I will pretreat rather than toss it ,or wash and wash and wash. I have learned that each quilter develops a guideline they use for fabrics and what their comfort level is. This can be altered typically by an experience. Sorry I got so carried away in my response. |
I've had excess dye or bleeders from brown, black, green, blue, purple, red, orange, and YELLOW fabrics. By the way, some yellow dyes can be quite troublesome to try to remove.
As Lori S said - each quilter develops his/her guidelines for fabric prep and what his/her comfort level is in using 'straight from the store' fabrics |
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