Originally Posted by
bearisgray
No one has ever a swerved this question when I have asked it:
If one has enough reason to wash a large piece of fabric, wouldn't there be enough reason to wash a small piece of the same fabric?
In theory, yes.
Whatever you’re worried might happen to the large piece of fabric-bleeding, shrinkage-could also happen to the small piece of fabric.
But in practice, washing lots of small pieces of fabric is a whole different experience, because you have way more edges, and edges fray.
I’ve never washed 2.5 inch strips of fabric because I’d be concerned about all those frayed edges, and the strips themselves knotting around each other. If I lose even a fraction of an inch at the edge, the whole piece doesn’t work.
When I wash a whole yard of fabric, I might even serge the raw edges, but if I don’t, and there’s fraying, I just cut it off and still have lots of usable cloth.
Thats just my humble opinion.