IdahoSandy

I sew a seam across the cut side of material before washing. This help with the fraying.

newbee3

thats one reasson not to wash fabric

Neesie

The WORST experience I've had, with a piece of fabric, was with one from a LQS. It was cut from the bolt, straight. However, it was wound onto the bolt, crooked. When I pulled it from the washer, it was still a parallelogram but NO WHERE near a rectangle! Ended up losing about 2" from each end. IF I'd used it in a quilt, without first washing, it'd probably have ruined the entire quilt.

CoyoteQuilts

I started using the gentle or the hand wash cycle. Unless it bleeds you don't need to beat the fabric like you do with your dirty clothes. Have almost eliminated the snarls and less time getting from new to table...

carolynjo

I learned to cut the corner (down about 1/2") off each end of the fabric before you wash. I don't have ravelings to speak of; they stop when the thread gets to the end of the first corner. Try that and see if it works for you.

lfstamper

I put them in laundry bags for eashing. Especially fat qtrs. No tangles.

Robinlee

I've come upon this several times..............I finally figured out, that I wash it to long. In the last year, I discovered if I fill the machine with hot water on regular/permanent cycle (because my gentle cylcle doesn't allow "hot" water), then I change it to the gentle cycle for the washing, I have "LESS" tangle mess, and usually have NO tangled mess. The other thing in this endeavor is that I when I am prewashing Batik's this way, I usually run twice, due to color bleeding.

Last night I pre-washed 5 yds of White diaper flannel that I used for backing fabric also, 90" wide x 5 yds. by doing the above steps, I had NO tangled mess in washer, then I shook out for dryer and no tangled mess there either. So these steps do work.

This was a learning process for me.

rosiewell

I am told that if you snip the corners of each fabric piece it will not tangle, don't know if it works as I always forget to do it!

feffertim

I always use my rotary pinking cutter. It really does help.

feffertim

I rarely wash my fabric first unless I am concerned about the color bleeding.