
Color Swirl by Kevin Tatum (my grandson) using Corel Painter.
Any quilter who follows quilting-related social media is probably well aware of the frequent discussions about whether or not to prewash one’s fabric before starting a new project. Why should one ever want to wash that nice crisp fabric with a good finish? I’ve heard many a quilter say they don’t always prewash their fabric. So why should one prewash?
I came into quilting following decades of fashion sewing. In fashion, it is always always necessary to prewash washables, or do whatever needs to be done to preshrink the fabric before making it into a beautifully fitted garment that could shrink or change the hand of the fabric when washed, cleaned, or steam ironed.
When I was a young woman I made the most beautiful two piece dress from a drapey rayon challis that I did not prewash because I was anxious to complete the outfit in time for a special event. I did wear it to that event, and a couple of times after that. But then it had to be cleaned and I hand washed it in cold water. I loved that outfit. It was flattering and beautiful and I had done an exceptional job making it. When I washed it, it shrank multiple sizes despite the cold water and line drying. I was astonished. I was distressed.
I, too, love the look and workability of fabric direct from the store. Once in a while I have made a small item without washing it. But on occasion, when pressing something with a strong color and using spray starch or spray water, the color from the fabric migrated to my ironing board cover. Sometimes that happens even to prewashed fabrics. The worst colors for this are red, browns with red in them, purples with red in them, and some greens.
I prewash everything washable now, even it it is going in a quilt I will not wash when completed. I even prewash most silks albeit by hand. Sometimes, I even wash fabrics twice if they are dark reds or some color that uses dark reds. On rare occasions, I have been very disappointed when they came out of the wash, because they faded badly or changed the fabric hand in some way to make it seem less desireable. But I figure it is far far better to find this out about the fabric BEFORE I put all those hours into making the quilt than after.
Prewashing is not only important to prevent bleeding when blocking a quilt, but fabrics shrink at different rates. Differences in the tightness of the twist of the thread when spinning, the thread count, where the cotton was grown, and the dying and finishing processes can all affect the amount of shrinkage. This means that soaking/washing the quilt might cause the pieces to become misshapen. It could cause your perfectly pieced quit top to no longer be perfect, and your appliques to slightly misshape. It might be so slight you wouldn’t be able to figure out just what happened. Why does your quilt have a wave now when you were sure it didn’t before? Why is there a bump in that part of the quilt when you hadn’t seen it before? why is there a wiggle in that center section that you thought was really straight. Of course, a lot of that can be corrected in blocking, but if you had prewashed everything, it may be possible these things don’t happen. Of course, it might just be you hadn’t seen it before. LOL
So after the fabrics are washed, I will often iron them with spray starch (starching on the wring side to prevent flakiness). Once that is complete, the fabric is nice and crisp and ready to place in the quilt. The colors are true to what they will be when blocked. Despite the time it takes, I encourage you to prewash and iron your fabric before you start your quilt.
One more thing. If you DO have a bleed on your beautiful quilt, the best advice on fixing it that I have ever seen comes from Vicki Welsh in her blog here.
Sew happy everyone. Have fun working on your Christmas/Holiday projects.