Washing Quilt Before Binding.
 

I'm considering washing a quilt that I'm working on before I go ahead and bind it. There are a few areas where the quilting is less than perfect and I'm not sure if the "puckering effect" after washing will hide it, or if I have to go and rip it out and do over. Has anyone else done this?

~ C

I would not wash before binding. I wash only after binding. If you wash before let us know how it worked or not.

I've never done it either. Let us know if you do and how it works out.

oh have patience and wash it after binding. all you want to see is how the quilt looks but should wait until is is bound.

Okay, if you absolutely MUST--zigzag the the edge all the way around, so that it doesn't become a frayed mess. But honestly, I wouldn't bother. If you bind it first, it will all shrink at the same rate. If you wash first, bind and then wash again, the binding may pucker.

This is pretty much exactly what I was going to say. :)

Yup, I side with GingerK and sewnoma -- you risk having a mess and if there is some puckering, consider doing some extra quilting in that area after putting on the binding and washing it.:thumbup:

I'm not sure what you would accomplish by not binding??
...... if you are washing whether with or without binding, you are going to have a washed quilt.

Agree with the others, that you either need to do your fix-up now ... before washing.
Or decide to live with it .... bind it, then wash.

If it is bothering you now .... you are probably best to do some reverse-stitching and re-do your quilting in your area of concern.

I would not wash it before binding.

Reverse stitching- is that the same as the frog stitch?

Yup, You got it ...rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrip-it! :)

Don’t do it. Fix your puckery areas now and then bind it.

I agree with the rest, bind it before washing. You would risk a bigger mess with frayed seams, etc. on the edges and seams near the edge. If needed, fix anything afterwards. It has been my experience that what looks like huge boo-boos before washing don't look nearly as bad after washing!

I wash after binding.

I had herited a baby quilt, hand quilted, which had a spot in it Not knowing what it was. decided to treat the spot and soak it. The spot came out and I air dried it.Then put the binding on it. I think it came out good.

Generally, I would bind before washing. However, on one occasion, the cat decided to pee on a quilt that I was working on. It was a queen size quilt that I was about 3/4 done quilting by hand. The smell was unbearable, and I seriously considered throwing it in the trash, but after spending over 100 hours hand quilting, not to mention over $200 in supplies, I decided to try and wash it.


Fortunately, even though it was not fully quilted, it was thread basted. To keep it from becoming distorted and frayed at the edges by the agitation in the washer, I put the quilt in a pillowcase, and took it down to the laundromat and washed it in a front loading machine.

Fortunately, it worked out quite well, and I was able to get the smell out and resume my quilting. Once it was completely finished, and washed again, you couldn't tell the difference in the areas that had been quilted before and after.

If you are going to wash it while in progress, I suggest you also put the fabric you are going to use for the binding to wash also, so so when you do bind it, the fabrics have all had the same treatment.

Thanks for those great tips. The pillowcase is a good idea and so is prewashing the binding. I ended up tearing out several rows of the quilting and repaired it as best I could. Now I'm ready to bind it and hope that whatever I could not repair will "pucker up" and "disappear" after it is washed.

Thanks everyone!

~ C