To wash or not to wash jelly roll fabric?
 

I have always washed and dried all my quilting fabric because of possible bleeds and shrinkage. Until now, I have resisted using precuts, such as jelly rolls because I didn't think you could wash jelly rolls. Recently I have heard you should wash jelly rolls....how in the world would you do that? Can anyone enlighten me?

All I can picture is ending up with a ball of threads--I wouldn't do it.

I wouldn't wash one either. I do wash FQ's and above, but nothing that's supposed to be sewn before cutting.

My experience with washing layer cakes and jelly rolls is that the fabric shrinks unevenly -- a lot one way and very little the other. The two times I washed jelly rolls (both with pinked edges), I was still able to use them as 2.5" strips, although they were slightly narrower than the stash strips I used along with them. I washed and rinsed them by hand, spun in nylon mesh garment bags and hung to dry.

I would dip each strip in a bowl of water with just a drop of soap. Swish around, check for bleeding , rince in another bowl, dip strip in starchy water and lay on a towel to dry. After Dry, press, and cut per pattern.

I did a experiment on a strip. I washed one by hand in hot water and Tide and let the strip air dry and the strip shrunk 2 inches length wise not width wise. So I washed the rest of the roll. Maybe you can try one and see what happens.

I foreget to add I hung the strips on a hanger and hung the hangers in the bathtub.

I wash them in the sink, few drops of laundry detergent, rinse, spin in salad spinner, then hang to dry

I wash all of my fabrics too before starting a quilt but I don't wash anything that is smaller than a fat quarter. I feel you may get alot of fraying. Possibly you could rinse your jelly roll in a sink full of warm water and slowly work them thru and no harsh agitation. Just a thought.

No way would I wash precuts. Just sew with them then wash the whole quilt after finishing.