BuzzinBumble

Hi! Does anyone know if precut fabrics such as jelly rolls, layercakes, charm packs, etc. are also preshrunk before the cutting? Also, if you buy precuts from a name brand manufacturer, how accurate and consistent are they in sizing? What about from brand to brand?

I found one seller who said her Honeybun was steamed. Mine gets that way too if I buy too much fabric...

Okay, enough of that. So what does steamed and diecut mean? How much does steaming preshrink the fabric?
That was a lot of questions.
Thanks in advance for any help with this!

karenpatrick

No, precuts are not preshrunk. Manufacturers recommend that you NOT wash them before using. I've never heard of steaming fabric so I don't know about that one. Diecut means that the shapes are cut with a metal die - like a shaped stamper with sharp edges. Supposed to make for better accuracy. Buy from the best manufacturer you can afford. I only buy pre-cuts from well known lines. Moda is my favorite. I have found some distortion in all the jelly rolls and layer cakes I have purchased. I have also learned the hard way how to treat the jelly roll strips. I was working on a Gemini quilt from jelly rolls and found that I was distorting them as I starched them and pressed them. So now I just dry iron them before I use them. Lesson learned.

EasyPeezy

Maybe you can contact the seller and ask what they mean by "steamed".
Could be they ironed it with steam? I buy lots of pre-cuts. No, they are
not pre-shrunk and they are not always accurate. If you buy pre-cuts,
be prepared to work around this. I starch all my fabric heavily including
pre-cuts. They do need gentle handling though. To avoid lots of stretching
I cut my jelly roll strips in half before starching. Press (up and down) and
don't iron back and forth. Hope this helps.

crafty pat

I like to cut my own, that way I wash and shrink the fabric before I cut and get no shrinkage after my quilt is washed.

gayle bong

I have watched steam shrink fabric, so it really does work. As far as any from manufacturers though, i don't know.

BuzzinBumble

Thank you each of you... all of what you wrote helps to know!
Jelly rolls and such always seem like such a tempting way to get a large variety of fabrics from one collection, but so far I've preferred to cut my own too.
I did just find one seller on eBay who actually preshrinks, irons, and rotary cuts the fabric for her precut fabrics:
Twin Orchards Textiles Right now she has mostly color mixes of batiks. So I'm looking at a couple of her auctions and if I buy one it will be a good way to find how accurate her cutting is.
Those Moda collections are sorely tempting too.

Katmom

Hoffman Bali Pops now carry a "warning" that the strips are cut by hand and variations in strips will occur! A friend in my quilt group made a major complaint to Hoffman after purchasing one for a class and having a lot of uneven strips so they now have this warning on their package!