What could be more devastating than to spend ten hours planning, laying out, cutting out, sewing up, and finishing a beautiful garment or other project only to see it shrink the first time it is washed. Or imagine creating a beautiful red blouse and watching it turn pink the first time it gets wet.
PRESHRINK: Before You Use Any Fabric, preshrink it. This is especially true of natural fibers. What could be more devastating than to spend ten hours planning, laying out, cutting out, sewing up, and finishing a beautiful garment or
other project only to see it shrink the first time it is washed. I remember my older brother Dennis had this beautiful slip-over sweater. Everybody bragged about it. One day my mother accidentally tossed into the washer with other laundry and when it came out of the dryer… well you can imagine. My brother is eight years older than me, and the sweater was even too
small for me. My brother was certainly not happy, but it was funny to see that large man’s sweater mysteriously turn into
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a perfect doll’s sweater.
Natural fibers tend to shrink whenever exposed to heat and moisture. Wools are especially problematic. Cotton fabrics shrink too. Although, cotton does not typically shrink to the degree that wool does, even a little shrinkage can alter the fabric significantly. Cotton is a natural fiber produced from a plant grown much like soybeans in fields by farmers. The fibers are processed, stretched, pulled, and straightened. Various coatings are applied for stiffening to the fibers and threads produced.
These threads or yarns are woven together to form the cotton fabric. Exposure to heat and moisture causes the fibers to relax or go limp like the original state of the fiber. This is the shrinkage process. Some of the newer natural fabrics have been processed to limit or prevent shrinkage, but “it is better to be safe than sorry”.
Washing the fabric in a washing machine causes the materials to absorb moisture. The result is shrinkage. Applying heat in the dryer amplifies the problem. The amount of shrinkage varies from fabric to fabric. If you can imagine, you just finished a queen size quilt. It has taken maybe a hundred hours of tender loving sewing. You neatly laid the finished quilt over the back of the couch. A few days pass and the grandchildren come to visit. One of them comes in and jumps up on the couch with his dirty shoes and the dirt goes straight on to the your magnificent quilt. You quickly try to rescue the quilt, but it is soiled, maybe permanently. What are you going to do?
Obviously, the solution is to wash the quilt, right? Sure, but only if before you ever started sewing you fully prepared your fabrics. If not, ouch!
When cotton is exposed to moisture and heat, it not only shrinks it does so in unpredictable and inconsistent
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ways. If you have a whole quilt of different cotton pieces, you may get a bunch of puckers, pulls, and distortions. This is due to the irregular ways cotton shrinks.
Some quilters prefer to use unwashed fabrics during construction of the quilt, and then do a careful moistening and stretching in an attempt to control the shrinkage while producing an appearance of aging. This can also be done with other projects like shirts and pants.
It is usually best, however, to do a pre-wash or pre- shrinking of fabrics so the finished product will have a much more polished appearance. At least test the fabic, before spending endless hours making a project that will disintegrate on the first washing. If you have any question at all, Before You Use Any Fabric, Preshrink It. This is especially true of natural fibers.
PREWASHING accomplishes several things at once. It removes the excess chemicals, sizings, protective coatings, debris, and loose fibers. These excess chemicals can be big irritants if you are sensitive. Their touch, sell, and feel can make working with the fabric a challenge. After washing, the fabric is far easier to handle.
It removes some of the crispness of the new fabric. The fabric takes on a bit softer appearance, but if you prefer that crispness of new fabric, it can still be yours. Just use a can of spray starch or sizing and spray a light mist over the fabric. That crispness returns. Now you have control over the chemicals. Take a look at the ingredients label to see exactly what chemicals you may be adding. Choose a spray that is less irritating by scrutinizing those ingredients.
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fabric shrinks, it may shrink more when further exposed to moisture and heat, but the shrinkage is significantly reduced.
Here are some simple steps to prewashing: Use a large washtub, large dish pan, bathtub, or clothes washer. Fill it and prepare a cool washing solution of premixed mild detergent, Ivory Soap Flakes (not powdered detergent) or Orvus soap. Never use any soap containing bleach or other harsh chemicals that could ruin your fabric. Thoroughly stir the soap in the water so it completely dissolves before adding fabric. Check with your sewing expert at your closest sewing center or quilt store for more details.
Unfold the fabric to be washed. Gently place the fabric into the washing solution. Push it down into the water. Soak the fabric thoroughly. Gently agitate or swish the fabric by hand or by machine using maximum delicate cycle. Do as much soaking as washing. Thoroughly rinse the fabric to remove all the detergent or soap.
Air dry at room temperature or dry in a clothes dryer at low heat and use the delicate cycle. Remove the fabric from the dryer as soon as the fabric is dry.
Once the fabric is thoroughly dry it may be pressed with an iron, but it is usually optimum to do so just before your begin cutting and sewing with the fabric. Pressing should be done with a hot dry iron to press out the wrinkles from the fabric. Once done, the fabric is ready to cut and sew.
Testing Prevents Problems: If you believe your fabrics are not going to shrink significantly, it is not always necessary to pre-wash them. In many cased you can test a square piece of the fabric and measure the shrinkage factor. If it less than ten percent, you are probably ok.
163 PRESHRINK: You may also preshrink instead of washing the fabric. To preshrink or prepare fabric for sewing, dampen the fabric. Stretch it out so it can dry thoroughly. Some fabrics will shrink five to ten percent the first time they are washed. Preshrinking will safeguard further shrinkage. Some fabrics shrink far more than others. Wool has the reputation of a shrinking “violet”, but preshrinking and pretreatment will go a long way to prevent massive shrinkage. Some fabrics are labeled as pre-shrunk, but otherwise preshrink. Some better fabrics in specialty shops are designed to minimize shrinkage, color fade, and similar deterioration through laundry. Always check the laundry instructions and follow them explicitly.
Other problems can also sometimes be averted during the fabric preparation process. Sometimes fabrics are not as color fast as desired. You may add color stay to prevent discoloration later during the preshrink fabric preparation process.
Prevent Bleeding: Sometimes when some fabrics get wet, they bleed. They are said not to be color fast. Fabrics that do not bleed are described as color fast. Natural fibers are more vulnerable to this problem than synthetic fibers because of the manufacturing process.
Bleeding is especially noticeable with reds. If you spend many hours creating something wonderful and then wash it, some terrible things can happen. If your fabric has not been prewashed and the colors set, the vivid red and purple dyes may well bleed all over the rest of the quilt ruining it. So, prevent bleeding. No, don’t use bandaids. They don’t work. Caution: anytime you use a fabric with really deep reds, purples, or other colors; test it for color fastness or bleeding.
164 Use A Bleed Test. Double Check before using a fabric to insure that it is color fast (won’t bleed) by using a bleed test. Cut a two to three inch square piece of each fabric you plan to use. Mix some washing solution in a large dish or pan, pour in a water soap solution just like you would use in your washer to wash the quilt in the future. The temperature should also match your washing situation as close as possible. Set the square of fabric into the bowl or pan of washing solution. Make sure you dunk it so it really gets wet, and doesn’t just float on top of the water. Wait thirty to forty five minutes or so. Check the color of the water. If the water has a colored tint, the fabric was not color fast. It did bleed. . If the color of the water was clear, it does not necessarily mean that the fabric is colorfast. To double check, take the fabric out and lay it on a piece of white paper towel. Wait a few minutes. Lift the fabric piece. Is there color on the paper towel? Yes, then it may still bleed onto other fabrics in the quilt. No, then it is likely colorfast.
Prevent catastrophe by pre-treating the fabric with a color stay product. . A cap full of Synthrapol or similar product (read directions on bottle) per load of wash will usually clean away loose dyes preventing most bleeding, but may not prevent all transfers from actual contact with another fabric. In the worst cases, it may be necessary to treat the fabric with a dye fixative like Retayne to set the dyes. Once you have treated the fabrics, do another bleed test just to be sure.
If the project is already assembled (sewn together) without having been pre-washed; perform the bleed test before washing. The bleed test should be done on each of the various fabrics in the finished quilt especially those with bold colors. Use a cotton swab or cotton ball. Dip the cotton swab into warm water and rub it on the fabric pieces. Saturate the fabric with the water, but do not soak the quilt. Test the top layer of the fabric only. Avoid soaking the other
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layers of the quilt. Inspect the cotton for any color transfer. If the cotton changes color, it will likely bleed if you wash the quilt. If you see not color transfer, there is still a chance that if the quilt is exposed to a full soaking, soap, and heat; it may still bleed.
Other problems can also sometimes be averted during the fabric preparation process. Sometimes fabrics are not as color fast as desired. You may add color stay to prevent discoloration later during the preshrink fabric preparation process.
STARCHING: When you are planning an embellishment project is is a good idea to starch the material before doing the embroidery or embellishment. This prevents the fabric from stretching during the embellishment process, and leaves a beautiful finish.