kaelynangelfoot

I'm working with a layer cake cut into charm squares and did not prewash the precut. My question is, should I prewash the yardage I purchased for the border?

What do you prefer to do when working with precuts?

JulieR

Nope! I don't prewash anyway, but if I did, if any of the fabric in the quilt weren't washed I wouldn't wash any of it. You don't want the precut fabric to shrink in the quilt while your border fabric doesn't.

valleyquiltermo

I agree with JulieR for sure.

Piper

I do not prewash the yardage that I buy to go with my precuts, but sometimes I have yardage in my stash that would have gone great with my precuts, but those are all prewashed, and f<sigh>or me, it's either all the fabrics in a specific quilt are prewashed, or none of them are. Otherwise, they will shrink differently when you wash the finished quilt.

Aside from my precuts (which I keep in a bin with a lid until ready to use) I have to prewash my fabrics that sit on the shelves in my quiltroom because I will get headaches and dizziness from the chemicals in unwashed fabrics as they leech out into the air in my studio. (Learned that the hard way!) </sigh>

Misty's Mom

I use both washed and unwashed fabrics, being as I don't wash the precuts I bought. Haven't had a problem.

ckcowl

it's not going to make a lot of difference. I never pre-wash pre-cuts....I do sometimes pre=wash yardage- regardless of if i'm also using pre-cuts,.. I prewash yardage when I think it might bleed, when it feels or smells funky, when it has a lot of creases in it that do not want to come out with just ironing...when I think I should- but I always mix washed & not washed fabrics in a quilt- including flannels-

Suze9395

Question, this is an honest question...not snarky, I promise. Based on the assumption that the current question is in reference to shrinkage and NOT bleeding.

If you use cotton batting, the batting is going to shrink when the quilt is washed the first time. How much difference will it really make if some of the fabric is prewashed and some is not?

Piper

Okay MistysMom and ckcowl, you might just be turning my world upside down! So you mix washed and unwashed fabrics in your quilts and have never had a problem with them shrinking differently when you wash the finished quilt? (Oh I hope so! I have always had just one way of thinking on this topic but I have never been so eager to be proven wrong before!)

Either way, per the OP's original question, I still wouldn't purposely prewash my yardage that went into a quilt with precuts, no reason to really. But it would be nice to open up being able to use my washed stash fabric with precuts from time to time. I am beginning to think I have fallen prey to old, outdated information on this subject from when I first starting quilting 15 years ago.

dunster

Shrinkage of the batting really depends on what kind of batting it is. Cotton will shrink much more than poly. And different cotton quilting fabrics will have different shrinkage rates, so if someone is really very concerned about shrinkage they should prewash everything. However... I really don't think you're going to have any shrinkage problems mixing your precuts and your other fabrics, prewashed or not. (I do prewash everything (except precuts, which I seldom use anyway, and any fabrics that are destined for a OBW) but not so much because of shrinkage as because of possible bleeding and to get rid of the chemicals on the fabrics.)

Neesie

Even if you use all unwashed fabric, it won't all shrink equally. If I was afraid a fabric would bleed, I'd wash it, regardless of whether or not the pre-cuts were unwashed.