Author: Shelley the pirate in CA
Date: 11-11-09 21:16
Bonnie, after having a HORRID experience with color bleeding, I always wash my fabric before I cut into it. Washing also removes all the chemical sizing, surface dirt .... and importantly for me, it allows the grain to relax.
When yardage is put onto the bolts at the mills, it is under great strain. The chemical sizing helps keep the grain that way.
You know that when the store cuts the yardage, they are very careful to cut it as perpendicular to the selvage as possible. Sure looks straight, doesn't it? When you wash/dry it and then align the selvage edges, all of a sudden those cut ends are horribly "off grain" .. or so it seems. Sometimes I've lost as much as 6 inches from the cut ends.
In reality, the grain has been relaxed enough to revert to how it wants to hang, instead of being forced into alignment. You want the grainline to be as it should be ... relaxed .. so that when you make your garment, pillowcase, quilt, whatever ... it will hang properly.
If you cut your fabric before washing it ... make your item THEN wash it, sure enough the grain is going to relax but your item very well may not hang properly. Maybe that's not too important for a mere pillowcase (but folding it flat could be a problem), but for garments that you wear, not being on-grain is disastrous.
So, for all of those reason, when I buy fabric, before it ever goes into the sewing room or stash, it first makes a detour to the laundry. Always.
But, that's just me. :-)
Shelley, Walnut Creek, CA
Jolly Rodgers:the Portuguese Pirate!
Quilting http://pir8.freeservers.com/quilting/index.htm Embroidery http://pir8.freeservers.com/Machine-Embroidery/index.htm
& Sewing http://users.value.net/pirate/sewing
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