Sewing 101, Tutorials, Uncategorized

Sewing Back-to-School: Prewashing Fabric

This post is part of the Sewing Back-to-School series, 30 days of helpful sewing articles by guest bloggers. Feel free to check out the original Sewing Back-to-School post for schedule and previous posts!

Sarai from Colette Patterns is such an inspirational pattern designer! I am currently working my way through all of the patterns through my Colette Diaries series. Sarai has a new book coming out in November, which I’ve already placed on my Amazon wishlist! The Rooibos Sew Along is currently going on at the Colette blog, and you can find tons of information and tutorials to make a beautiful dress of your own!




Most fabrics change when you wash them. Sometimes the change can be very subtle; the fabric might feel or drape in just a slightly different way. Other fabrics can shrink drastically, and some will continue shrinking over multiple washings.

When you’re sewing, this can be a very bad thing. Spending hours and hours making a dress that fits you might all be in vain if the dress shrinks two sizes after the first trip to the washing machine!

Prewashing fabric is a way to minimize these terrible surprises. In essence, you wash the fabric before cutting or sewing it, so that any changes happen before your pieces are cut out.
The basic rule of thumb for prewashing is really simple. Wash your fabric using whatever method you’ll use to wash the completed garment. This applies to your main fabric as well as any linings or interfacings you use.

I find that the easiest way to handle prewashing is simply to wash fabric as soon as I buy it. I keep it separate from the rest of my stash until it’s washed. That way, there’s no danger of cutting into something that hasn’t been properly treated.

Here are some more specific guidelines for prewashing fabrics made of various fibers:


Cottons:

  • Lightweight cotton (such as voile or batiste): Hand wash and hang dry to prevent this light and delicate fabric from tearing in the washing machine.
  • Medium or heavy cottons: These fabrics can be washed and dried by machine. To be safe, you might wash and dry them a few times. This will help fully shrink them, since cotton does have a tendency to shrink.
  • Cotton flannel: Wash and dry flannel in your machine, and use hot water. Wash it 2 or 3 times, since flannel does shrink quite a bit.
  • Denim: Wash denim once or twice in hot water, then machine dry. Like other cottons, denim shrinks. It can also bleed dye, so try to get that excess dye out before you sew.


Wool:

  • Woven wool: This is best taken to the dry cleaners. I’ve ruined plenty of wool skirts hand washing them, because wool will just keep shrinking with every wash. If the wool is blended, you might be able to hand wash.
  • Knit wool: If yu’re a knitter, this one will be familiar. Hand wash it very gently, using a gentle wool detergent. Don’t agitate the water too much, which can damage the fibers. Lay it flat to dry.


Silk:

  • Charmeuse: I usually hand wash charmeuse. Washing can affect the look and dull the sheen a bit, so try out a test swatch first. If you don’t want the fabric to change at all, you can dry clean.
  • Chiffon or georgette: Hand wash gently and drip dry. Be careful in washing, because these fabrics can snag easily.
  • Silk Habotai: Another good candidate for hand washing and drip drying.
  • Silk crepe: Hand wash and drip dry. Crepe can sometimes shrink a little, due to the crinkly weave.


Plant fibers:

  • Linen: Wash linen and dry it in the machine. Washing will help to soften linen. Once it’s dry, press it thoroughly to remove wrinkles, since it will have plenty!
  • Rayon: Rayons can shrink a lot. It somewhat depends on the weave, so you might try out a swatch if you’re not sure. Generally, I hand wash rayons or place them in the delicate cycle, then machine dry.

Hopefully this will help you avoid any unpleasant surprises from shrinkage in your sewing. Do you have any other tips to share about prewashing and shrinking? Or horror stories to share?

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4 thoughts on “Sewing Back-to-School: Prewashing Fabric

  1. Katy Cameron says:

    Wish I’d read this to have reminded myself to wash the material for my mum’s new dress before I cut it out, and then discovered marks on 2 pieces – grrr. I’m *pretty* sure they’ll wash out, but didn’t want to risk it, so 2 more pieces cut. Good job I had plenty of material!

  2. suemac says:

    Thanks for the information. I am always confused about pre-washing.

  3. WONDERFUL! I just made a shirt, then accidentally put it in the dryer. The seams are crooked now :(. I’m so excited for this post and all the others! What a fantastic idea. I Love your blog!

  4. Kelly says:

    I’m going to be using chiffon and satin to make a dress. Do you use anything special for the hand washing? Is it okay to use just lukewarm water and let it drip dry?

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