Pre-washing Without Tangles

by Serena Smith

Pre-washing your fabrics is absolutely necessary before cutting or stitching your quilting fabrics. Why? Fabric shrinkage, color bleeding and eliminating fabric finishes are all reasons for pre-washing your fabrics. If you are like me, it is not such a big deal to wash and dry the fabrics. The not so fun part is all the raveled edges created as it is tossed around in the washer and dryer. When you pull the fabric out of the dryer, raveled edges and all, the threads have wrapped themselves around the fabric, causing pleats and wrinkles that are tough to press out.

Here's a couple ways you can pre-wash and dry your fabrics without the tangled mass of threads! The best solution I have found and love is to serge the raw edges of the fabric. A serger is a machine that trims and overcasts the fabric edge with a serged stitch. This will prevent the fabric from raveling. It's quick and easy to serge down the raw edge and then pop it in the washer and dryer.

Instead of using a serger, you could also stitch a zigzag down the raw edge of the fabric. Or if your machine has an overcasting stitch, you can also use that. This will keep down the amount of raveling that occurs.

If you do not own a serger, there is another method that works well. Cut a 1/2" triangle on all four corners of your piece of fabric before washing. This will prevent most of the raveling and fraying. You will still have a few threads dangling from your fabric, but not so much that it wraps around the fabric as it is tossed in the dryer.

Have you noticed that cotton fabrics with a metallic finish don't ravel? Last year I washed several pieces of fabric in preparation for a table runner and was amazed to discover that the two metallic pieces I had, did not ravel at all. Not even a single thread. Usually, even if a fabric doesn't shed much during washing, the raw edge has a wave to it or looks distressed. But the metallic fabric edges looked just like they did when it was cut from the bolt! So be sure to add some metallic fabrics to your pre-washing pile! :)