I have done a lot of sewing, crochet and embroidery, so I have experience with materials. I recently picked up a lot of quilt quarters at a yard sale for almost nothing. I've always wanted to try a quilt. I've picked out a fairly simple pattern and plan to modify it to my wants. Most of the quilting websites say that if you plan to hang the quilt, just use the materials as is, but if you plan to use the quilt, you should pre-shrink the squares, then iron them flat before doing any cutting.
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You will want to wash and iron all the fabric before you create anything, if you want to be able to wash it without spoiling the finished quilt. If the fabric is not pre-washed, it can shrink at varying rates causing lumps and puckers all over your quilt.
Di
You can wash or not wash -up to you. If you don't wash before hand, your quilt will get a delightful crinkly look which I like, but others don't seem to like.
To reduce the frays you can try a few different things.
1. cut a small triangle off the corners of your fabrics.
2. use a mesh bag
3. wash on gentle
4. hang to dry on a clothesline or tumble until still damp, then press dry.
hope this helps.
I have been quilting for more years than I care to tell. The best thing to do is to wash the fabric while it is still in yards, not made into squares.
What I've done several times is sew the quilt top together, then serge (or zigzag) around all edges. Then wash.
I'd recommend washing and drying in a hot dryer, while the fabric is still yardage. It's the hot drying that really will do the shrinking (even if it's harder to iron afterwards).
Try washing the squares on a gentle cycle. This should help with the fraying, from the agitation during the wash cycle.
I agree with taking them out of the dryer slightly damp. Hand-press them down, letting them finish drying. Then, you can press them with an iron, if you like.
The problem with not washing them is, if you ever do wash the quilt, the pieces could shrink at different rates, kinda warping the quilt. You'd hate to have all your hard work be wasted, due to any uneven shrinkage.
If you wash them prior to quilting, those pieces that shrink too much, can be discarded or you can use them in another project.
If you let all those pieces soak in the bathtub in hot water for a couple hours, would that do it?
You can also put your squares in some water in a salad spinnner and then dry. It works.
Di, I know this is late but I hope you see it. If you cut a small triangle off of each corner, the fabric will not unravel very much. I've been doing this for years. I don't remember where I heard it. Hope this helps.
I haven't been horribly successful with cutting off the corners of the fabric to reduce the fraying (maybe too small of a piece?). When I used pinking shears it worked out much better.
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