Preparing Your Fabrics for Quilting
Should You Prewash Your Fabrics?
There is a bit of debate in the quilting world about whether you should prewash your fabrics. Like with all hobbies, there are purists who can suck the fun out of it and become “police.” Here’s what you really need to know to make the best decision for you.
Prewashing
My mom prewashes everything. Why? Because she is allergic to whatever they put on fabrics from the factory.
The BENEFITS of prewashing your fabrics include:
Preshrinking them
Getting the “color bleeds” out of the way before you have light and dark fabrics together in the washing machine as a quilt.
The DOWNSIDES of prewashing your fabrics include:
Fabric edges fray a good deal in the washing machine and dryer. Some people clip the edges and believe this helps. No matter how much I do this, I still lose around a ¼” from all sides. I also have a lot of strings to trim and clean off. This bothers my ADHD a lot!
All your fabrics have to be pressed really really well after coming out of the dryer.
It takes longer to get to your fabrics. The washing, drying, and the pressing process adds hours to your total making time.
You can’t really prewash precuts, so if you mix precuts and prewashed yardage in the same quilt, they will shrink differently during the quilt’s first wash.
Not Prewashing
I don’t prewash. Why? Because it annoys me. I have precuts and yardage, and I don’t want to keep up with what has been prewashed and what has not. I also like that my fabric and batting shrink together during the first wash. With the concern about colors bleeding, I use a LOT of color catchers and I have never had a single problem of bleeding with my high-quality fabrics.
Preparing Your Fabrics for Your First Quilt
Whether you prewash or not, you want to make sure that your fabrics are pressed well.
If you have precuts – don’t handle them more than you need to. The more you move fabric around and touch it, the more it will distort the weave and cause the fabric to lose its shape.
If you have yardage – I like to keep my yardage folded like it was on the bolt. Opening it up makes it difficult to cut strips. Keeping it folded and matching up the selvages makes it much easier to manage.
Should You Starch Your Fabrics?
I do starch my fabrics. I use Best Press, but any starch will work. I find it helps the fabric hold its shape especially before cutting and before basting the quilt. What about just using steam you ask? Well, like prewashing, this is based on your preference. There are long-time professional quilters who use steam. There is also information out there about the steam and heat shrinking the fabric a little each time which can cause your fabric pieces to become the incorrect size. I haven’t tried it, so I can say either way, but it seems logical.
When you are pressing fabric in quilting, it isn’t the same as ironing your clothes. Ironing involves placing the iron on the fabric and literally pressing down while sliding the iron around. This WILL distort the fabric. It will loosen the weave. Do not “iron.”
Instead, press. Place the iron on the fabric, hold it for a short bit and then lift and move.
Fat Quarter unfolded before starching and pressing. You can see how the creases are prominent in the fabric.
Fat quarter after pressing. You can see that some of the creases are still faint. I don’t worry too much about this. I press one side and turn the fat quarter over to press the other side.