Came home today with my first fat quarters. The women at the quilt shop helped me pick colors for my tumbling block project and the fabric was beautiful.
My wife, an experienced quilter, insisted that the fabric should be washed. I sorted the colors into dark and light and put them in the washing machine. When I went to remove the fabric from the washing machine my beautiful fabric was a tangled mess of strings and all the edges were terribly frayed.
What is a better alternative? I totally new so please be gentle.
To wash or to not wash..... ask that question of quilters... and you'll get 10 different answers (or at least 10 different reasons for answering yes/no).
Options---
1) trim fabric with pinking shears before washing helps to minimize fraying
2) put them in a fabric bag (like for delicates) will minimize fraying.
3) hand wash
4) don't wash and take your chances with possible dye issues down the road (are you a risk taker?)
I put small bits like that into lingerie bags - those net bags used for delicate bras and stockings. helps a treat. :) Bigger bits I usually just leave, or maybe serge the ends together if it looks like it'll fray a lot.
-possibility of colours running (it's not just red that might!)
-getting shrinkage out of the way
-getting rid of all the various chemicals and dirt that get onto fabric bolts in the factories and various warehouses! on the way to us.
Fabrics vary in how much they fray. I very much second the idea of using net bags or pillowcases to wash fabric in.
Now you have your tangled mass, untangle it very carefully - cutting loose threads - don't try to pull them. You will probably then have to dampen it all in order to press out the 'pleating' achieved by the tangling. Sorry. Once it is all pressed, you can trim off the frayed edges. You will lose a little, but no more than if you pinked or serged the edges beforehand.
I must say that, even if I get a tangled mess, I prefer that to the idea of a quilt ruined by colour running or anything else unexpected >g<
Hope you'll soon be able to enjoy doing your Tumbling Blocks quilt. The fabric will be beautiful again. . In message , newquilter writes
The only time I don't prewash is when I'm going to stack and whack identicle pieces of fabric for a kaleidoscope. Too much work goes into making a quilt to discover one color that bleeds later and messes the whole thing up. Even in kaleidoscopes - I have to steel myself for that possibility and accept the results of washing after quilting. I've often included pieces of fabric in my regular wash, only a few at a time, which seems to reduce the fraying and tangling. Musicmaker
I must be strange - I *like* that tangled mess that comes out of the machine, because it gives me an excuse to fondle the fabric once again whilst trimming all the loose ends before ironing each FQ and folding beautifully before putting it away again...
...however pinking shears are most definitely your friend...
When I'm washing smaller pieces of fabric like FQ's (if there aren't too many of them) I usually wash by hand, only because it's gentler. Otherwise, the gentle cycle or a rinse-only cycle seems to work ok for me. Good luck with your project...I hope your fabric is still useable.
Buy a front loader. Fewer tangles, easier on fabric, also easier on clothes. Buy bigger pieces of fabric -not as much raw edge to fray. You could also hand wash, but I'm not convinced it really gets all the sizing and dust out. Roberta in D (I use the first 2 solutions :-)
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Hand wash fat quarters in VERY HOT water. Then throw them in the dryer on HOT. It is the heat that makes so many cottons shrink. Take them out before they are bone dry and smooth them out by hand, there will be almost no wrinkles.
Me--I never buy anything less than a yard if I can help it. Always easier to buy a bigger piece as then there is something left to go back to if necessary. My quilting friend list is bigger than my pile of scraps.
And I learned to ALWAYS prewash after a size 12 blouse came out size
You have gottten a lot of excellent replies. I just wanted to add that I have learned that with some fabrics, if you let them over-dry in the dryer, the wrinkles are about impossible to get out. Take them out while they are still just a little damp.
A simple solution is to clip the corners of the fat quarters at a 45% angle before washing. Stops the fraying. BTW, I am an oldie on this group (from several years ago) but just got another computer since my other one blew out in a thunderstorm. Hello to everyone again.
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