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A Tip for prewashing fabrics

16 years ago

Say Goodbye to All Those Strings

The only thing I really dislike about prewashing my quilting fabrics is all the strings that come loose during the wash, wrapping themselves in knots around the yardage.

The threads twist and pull at the fabric when they get tangled up in the wash--and you have to remove them before they go into the dryer so that fabrics come out wrinkle-free. Neglect to lose the threads and you'll see oodles of accordion pleats when you take fabrics out of the dryer.

It's easy to eliminate nearly all of the strings. Just clip off a little triangular section from each corner of fabrics before you wash them. Try about 1/2" or a little less. You'll still see a bit of fraying, but not enough to create bunches of knots.

Give it a try the next time you prewash your quilting fabrics--that little snip really makes a difference.

This is from About.com's quilting forum. Colleen

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Comments (9)

vicky4x4
16 years ago
Thanks for the tip.

Vicky
msmeow
16 years ago
Sounds pretty simple! Somewhere I saw a tip that said to serge the cut ends together, but then you'd have to cut off the serging. Just snipping a corner makes so much more sense!

That reminds me of a funny laundry story. My DH's broken hand is still healing, and he has to wear a splint that is attached with an elastic bandage, which gets washed with his clothes b/c it gets really dirty, really fast. The other day he needed his work clothes clean, so he washed them and loaded them in the dryer. Apparently a shirt tail or sleeve caught on the door latch unnoticed. I heard the dryer shut off after a few minutes and went to see why, and found the whole load of clothes twisted into a rope and bound up with that elastic bandage! It took both of us several minutes to untangle the mess and get the dryer going again!

It's nice that he wants to help but sometimes it's easier to just do things myself!

Donna
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love2sew
16 years ago
This is a great tip...it's quick and keeps those threads in place. Thanks!
Jean
susiequilt
16 years ago
How does this tell you which fabrics might run or do you wash any darks by themselves?
I've been washing everything in the sink then spin them in the washer before putting them in the dryer.
cannahavana
16 years ago
Susiequilts, try Shout brand Color Catcher. I throw one in the wash when I do my fabric prewash or anything that I think might run, like new clothes.

Rebecca

Here is a link that might be useful: color catcher
susiequilt
16 years ago
Thanks for the info about color catchers! I'll have to pick some up and give them a try.
crafteedee
16 years ago
One of our LQS uses a wavy rotary cutter to cut their fabric. This helps them wash nicer & I don't need to cut corners on those pieces. Would like to get one of those blades some day.

I used to serge the edges & that was a real pain.... especially when you had quite a few pieces. The cut corner trick really does work!
new2quilting
16 years ago
I tried the cut corner on 30 batik FQs I was washing, it definitely cut down on the fraying. I forgot to do that in the next batch and had to cut lots of strings before the dryer. Thanks for the tip. Oh, and I used a color catcher, too - I love those things! Also good to throw one in the first time you wash a quilt. --Amy
rosajoe_gw
16 years ago
I read about clipping the corners, and I guess I forgot about it. I washed some fabric and I have so many strings that I am going to post a note so I will remember to try it.
Rosa

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