I've recently learned a great lesson in pre-washing fabric, well I had a pre-washing incident and I am yet to assess exactly what I have learnt.....
These are my lovely owl and mushrooms Alexander Henry prints, and I pre-washed them along with the other fabrics inteded for my next project all together. I bought the other fabrics from Spotlight and they were a poly/cotton blend. I suspect the culprit of the above and below pictured grievous assault was the red!
The pictures don't look toooooo bad, but in real life the fabrics now look murky and horrible, luckily I only prewash half of what I had of each fabric so I'll use the other half in the quilt. Do you think some of that dye-gone type stuff will work to get the fabrics back to their pre-pre-washing beautiful state?
And do I take from this to.....
a. not pre-wash fabrics?
b. pre-wash dark colours separately?
c. don't buy cheap poly/cotton blends?
d. to pre-wash fabric on a very cool wash?
There we have it, still so much to learn!
But the fabrics are intended for an outdoor play quilt - here are all the fabrics together.
I want this quilt to be used and so I want to back the quilt in something hardwearing - any ideas anyone?
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I always throw a "Shout" brand "color catcher" in with my fabric. You buy them near the dryer sheets, and they seem to work. I washed some very bright red fabric with a printed one and no red bled onto anything but the color catcher. I would say that's a good test.
ReplyDeleteI throw three color catcher sheets in the washer when there is new quilt fabric. There is also a color remove near the rit dye on grocery shelves and it sure is worth a try.... will no doubt take some of the color out especially if you did not put the fabric in the dryer.... but to say it will be back to its pre wash state might be streching it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a khaki twill or cordroy (sp?) for the back??? I would prewash a few times for shrinkage, though?
ReplyDeleteThat's a YES to b) c) and d)
ReplyDeleteYou might find it hard to buy colour catchers in Sing. but they are available in the hardware shops I think
I always soak my fabric in a white plastic bin to see if it "bleeds". Many of my reds do (but I have had blues and greens do it also) and I soak and keep changing the water out until it quilts. If it doesn't, I won't use it in a quilt because it will usually continue to bleed.
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