Friday Quilt Class: Preparing Quilt Fabric

To Wash or Not To Wash

If I were to tell you I ALWAYS prewash

my quilting fabrics, I would be lying.

Often I'm at a class or at Me Time and

I purchase fabric and use it right away.

Even if I bring fabric home, sometimes

I can't wait to dive right into a project.

But I'm not saying I'm right.

In a perfect world, I would prewash

all quilting fabrics that came into

my studio.  Yet none of us are perfect...

So here are a few things to consider

and you can decide for yourself.

Fabrics can release (or bleed) their

dyes, it happens with our clothing

and it can happen with our fabrics.

Fabrics shrink.  If you make a quilt

and then wash it, it may pucker due

to shrinkage.  Some people do this on

purpose because they like the antique

look it gives, which is fine if that is what

you are going for.  But if you are not, you

won't be happy.

Different fabrics shrink differently.  So if

you have 5 fabrics in a quilt and they all

shrink differently, you could end up with

a mess.

Fabrics have a variety of chemicals on them,

from starches to sizing to bug repellants.  I

don't want to snuggle with a chemical laden

quilt.  Also if you are allergic to such things,

it would be better to get rid of them.

When I do wash fabric I make a

diagonal cut on all 4 corners.  This

helps prevent thread loss and knotting

in the washer and dryer.  This also

indicates the fabric has been washed.

When I wash, I always put fabric in

the dryer so the heat will shrink the

fabric.  When I take the fabric out of

the dryer I hang it on a line in my

laundry room until I can get around

to ironing it.

Nowadays ironing fabric is a breeze.

A few years ago we were driving down

a street when I called out, "Stop!"

There on the side of the road was a treadle

machine base, I had the guys put in the

trunk and I made myself this great

ironing table, so much easier than an

ironing board.

This is a quilt I designed recently.

There were many batiks in this

piece and I wanted to do a test

patch before I committed to buying

all that fabric.  I made up a block

(without prewashing) and as I was

pressing the finished block I added

some steam and the blue ran into

the white.  What a lesson I learned.

I washed every piece of fabric for

this quilt before making it.

The fabrics, batting and quilting

cost over $500 for this quilt but

more importantly I worked on it

everyday for a month and would

have been devastated if it were

ruined.