November 26, 2008

Prewash (Part Two)

I do the prewashing of the full fabric in one large plastic basin in 45-50 º Celsius (113-122 º Fahrenheit) water using very little mild soap. I don’t put too many fabrics in the basin so they don’t instantly cool the water down. I always open the fabric completely before placing it in the basin, because any fold is likely to develop an abrasion line during the prewash. I have them cool off in the water. I gently squeeze the water out of them and spread them out to dry (not on the sun!).

If I want to prewash a long fabric, that simply doesn’t fit into my basin I use the washing machine on a very gentle programme. I use the spin dryer in a similarly gentle way, then spread the fabric out to dry. It’s a good idea to sew the fabric together at 2-3 cm (about 1 inch) from the two cut edges, so it won’t turn into an unmanageable sea snake.
There is a recommendation to quilters iron the fabric right after, but there is no way that I iron and fold up such huge fabrics. So I always iron just that I actually need right before the work. And this way that fabric stays smooth.

If you have any more good ideas, please share them with me! I enjoy learning.
I used to keep these big fabrics in full on the shelves, but it started to become a bit hard to manage them, and they also took up way too much space. So I cut off about a meter (about one yard) long out of each one (it would be a lot of trouble to work with pieces bigger than that anyway), so they all fit in one place, arranged by colors. So I never forget about them anymore (it had happened before). This small open cupboard with shelves for the fabrics was made by my lovely husband.


Writing a blog is good, because knowing that I would like to take a picture of a part of my fabrics on the shelves sometime later made me keep organized, waiting for a sunny day. I hope this order will finally stay that way later on too.

2 comments:

Messzenéző Minyon said...

I use another way to prewash cotton: I also put it in a basin, but I use water as hot as it can come out from the shower. And I do not use soap. After this I also have them cool off in the water. But I do not make quilts :))

Unknown said...

What a great idea to cut up huge fabric pieces to smaller, more manageable ones. Your cupboard looks nice and organized and that husband of yours is a treasure!