Friday, March 23, 2007

Could have been an 'oops' (or Why I pre-wash my fabric)

Boy, do I love these batik flannels! Totally love them. As Woody Allen told Annie Hall, it's more than love -- I lurf them. They are gorgeous! I bought some for the back of Jocelyn's African Coins quilt and more for the back of Val's Ocean Waves Monkey Wrench quilt. When Sew Sassy put all the batik flannels on sale, I bought a little of each of them because I knew I would use them eventually. Eventually is now.


Flannels can shrink. Actually, they DO shrink -- they are more loosely woven than quilting cottons and when you wash them, well... they shrink. With all the dye in these batik-like flannels, they also bleed. When I prewashed the flannels I threw in a Shout Color Catcher, as I always do when I wash new fabric. Sometimes they get a faint tint, sometimes a more noticeable one, sometimes you can't tell they've been through the wash. But look at this! The blue sheet was washed with the flannels. The unused white one on top of it shows what it looked like when it went into the washer. Nuff said.

1 comment:

Laurel said...

Oh my goodness, I have never prewashed a fabric. I wonder if I should start?