Use your phone to take a picture of the bolt end with the fabric so you don’t forget any of the information once you get home. When you are using a fabric for something for yourself, use the laundering method you will use when the garment is finished. If you are going to use warm water to wash the garment, use warm water to preshrink the fabric before you make anything with it. Do you use high heat on everything you put in the dryer? Then use high heat to dry the fabric. Even if a fabric is labeled as dry clean only, dry clean it to preshrink it. When sewing for a gift, be sure to provide the recipient with washing instructions.
Flannel is known to shrink. Use hot water and a hot dryer to obtain the maximum shrinking during the preshrinking process. Repeat the process if you have any inkling that the fabric may shrink even more.Quilting weight cotton is readily available in most fabric stores and the quality of these fabrics varies widely, so don’t take any chances. Dyes often wash out from the fold in the fabric.Broadcloth is a heavier weight than quilting fabric but should be preshrunk to prevent it from shrinking when you are done with your project.Voile or lawn usually requires a gentle machine setting or hand-washing. Put this type of fabric in the dryer for a few minutes to remove the wrinkles that washing creates before line-drying it.
If you never go to the dry cleaners and know you will not take the finished item there, try your preferred washing method on a measured sample of the fabric to test the shrinking. In other words, cut a 5-inch sample of the fabric and finish the edges. Measure the sample with the finished edges. Once it has been washed and dried, measure your sample again to see how the size compares after shrinking, and make sure you still like the feel of the fabric before you preshrink the entire piece. When in doubt, preshrink a sample as described in the wool fabric method. Hand washing and line-drying are best if you have any doubts. If you know a stabilizer is going to shrink in a sewn project, preshrink it and press the stabilizer before you use it. It’s also a good idea to preshrink bias tape and almost all trims. Placing the items in a small garment bag keeps them from becoming tangled in the laundry.
