I bought a FQ @ JoAnn's yesterday. "Fabric Central Honeydew Collection" FQ. I haven't bought a pre-cut/packaged FQ from there in eons. It wasn't one of the FQ's that they hang under the bolts on the Great Wall of Cotton. It was folded to about 3" square & was in a bin with other sizes of JoAnn pre-cuts.

On the back of the label it says, first thing, "Do not prewash."

Huh?

No reason given for that statement. Are they hinting that it won't really be a FQ any more if you prewash? That you'll experience the dreaded Seinfeldian shrinkage?

Have you ever seen fabric marked with a statement like that? Do jelly rolls warn the same way? Those and 5" squares might be the only ones I would prewash very VERY gently, if at all. But a FQ? What are they thinking??

Now I'm really tempted to prewash just to see if the world stops spinning. They're not the boss of me!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: StarrySky,

That is bizarre, I've never heard of that. I wonder if they meant "prewashing not necessary". Very strange...I say be a remble and prewash. Just to see if the fabric swat team arrives at your door!

Right under "Do not prewash" is "Finished project fabric care: Machine wash cold, gentle cycle. Tumble dry low."

So wash, but just not too soon?

Maybe the label was printed in a foreign country and lost something in translation.

Good point, Mary Lou. It might have been: Not Prewashed. If you're making a fq quilt using a stacking method you might have a real problem due to shortage.

It says made in Pakistan. The rest of the label makes sense, just not that first directive.

I think I'd be more worried NOT to prewash it, if it needs cold water washing later on. I'd like to see it do what it's going to do BEFORE I cut it & sew it into a quilt.

I'm wondering if they're worried that people would bring it back to the store claiming that it's no longer the stated 18" x 21" after it was thrown in the washer and allowed to dance freely for 20 minutes. But those of us with black belts in quilting know that FQ's have to be handled with care when washing, and we could probably wash this puppy without a problem.

In any case, things that make you stop in your tracks when you see them!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: StarrySky,

I prewashed a piece of fabric from JoAnn's. It was cut off the bolt. Think I washed it by hand and let dry. Well......it was so limp and could see daylight between the threads. It wasn't too bad before washing, but it was not what I thought I paid good money to purchase.

I have also bought some of those packs of fabric labled Batiks. It wasn't a Batik that is almost the same on the back. These were just printed on the front. Also a poor quality. I really hesitate to buy fabric there anymore.

I picked up a packaged hank of elastic that said 1 yard. Had it opened at the cutting table. It was not a yard in lenght. She went and removed all those paackages from the notion wall right then. I sure would have been upset if sewing late at night and wanted to put that elastic in a pair of pants that I needed the next day.

Buyer beware!

I would not buy batiks @ JA's, not unless they were for some sort of craft project.

I usually reserve their (current) FQ's for the same type of thing. I have bought some nice ones there in the past, though. One time I found Andover fabric hidden in a bundled FQ pkg.

This one may be going inside a zippered pouch, so it probably won't get a lot of wear & tear or washing. But I am sooooo tempted to prewash it anyway. If you want me to do something, just try telling me NOT to do it... A hairpin stuck in an outlet as a kid comes right to mind!

I think I've told part of this story before. I'll repeat it simply because it is so on point.

I belonged to the Scrappy Fabrics Club with Keepsake. I quit when I found that the 1/4 yd of fabric they sent shrunk when washed to just barely 8", too many times. Now I have several packages of fabric that I'm not really sure what to do with because I don't trust the shrinkage rate. Obviously, wash before using because then I might have a good size for cutting. But what if it shrinks more?

With what your FQ said, Starry, I would say the instruction to not pre-wash was a language mis-interpretation. But just as with my fabrics, I'd be washing it before hand just because.

I will not buy any more of those little packages since they are folded so you can not see the back or gauge how flimsey the fabric.

At least on the bolt, may not be as big a disappointment. The sizing or whatever is on fabrics from the manufacturer hides a lot of faults with the fabric.

I would rather prewash and have shrinkage/bleeding before putting in a project. Unless at a reputable quilt shop, I buy extra for sloppy cutting, off grain and shrinkage.

quote:

Originally posted by Strings:
I buy extra for sloppy cutting, off grain and shrinkage.

I always do, too. I figure that if I need 1/4 yard, then 1/2 yard is better, and I'll probably regret that decision later, so I go with a full yard.

This FQ was cute, and no big deal if it's not the same quality as a LQS FQ, the way I'll probably use it. But I have never seen fabric anywhere marked "Do not prewash" like that!

I really don't have anything to add regarding the label on that FQ. I just wanted to say that I get a kick out of your subject titles!!! You always make me smile!
Susan

:-)

LOL! I stay up allllllll night working on titles, of course.

I've had a few experiences with fabric from Pakistan. They have been nice and thick cottons, but not necessarily tightly woven. My guess is it might shrink a bit more than you like. But smaller doen't mean it's defective...I've liked the cotton fabrics from there. They've been growing cotton in that part of the world for hundreds of years longer than us! ha!

Jenny (Quack) Doan, MSQC, sez....'Don't wash pre-cuts, especially 2 1/2" strips' in the current edition of "Quilting Quickly". How's that for a shocker?

I'm gonna guess and say because the fabric pieces are already cut and smaller, they will twist and warp.

Who'da thunk?

I think the "don't wash" warning for the little pre-cuts is valid, because someone's bound to throw them in the washer & then complain to the mfgr. that all they had left were shreds & strings, not the 5" squares or the strips they had originally bought. So there's a "don't say we didn't warn you" implication with such a message. BUT...

I don't want anything shrinking AFTER it's in my quilt. I have enough trouble trying to avoid that puckery look while sewing! If a fabric is going to shrink (or bleed), I want it to do that before I even cut. So I would at least WET the pre-cuts in a sink of (very) warm water, blot them, iron them dry, and THEN measure them. If I needed an exact 5" square, I wouldn't trust an unwashed 5" pre-cut with pinked edges. I'd start with yardage and cut my own 5" square. I'd buy the pre-cuts assuming that the most I might be able to get out of a 5" raw square is a 4 and 3/4" washed square. They're great for an assortment of fabrics, but I would want to trim them myself to the size I needed. That's my preference & I'm sticking to it. Err on the side of caution & all that.

I'd feel very confident washing a FQ by hand, no matter how it's marked. I usually cut those up anyway, with scraps left over. I don't recall ever buying a FQ thinking, "I need exactly 18" so this had better do it!" I'd buy 2/3 of a yard from a bolt instead.

I have a friend who's stopped buying jelly rolls after trying to piece too many of them that weren't exactly 2 and 1/2" wide to start with, unwashed. Like me, she's a stickler for measuring something right down to the thread.

Several years ago - before we opened the quilt shop - I bought some FQs from JA's & the sticker glue wouldn't come off. I tried everything & by the time it finally washed off, the color had faded too badly to use.

I still have that problem sometimes with their FQ's. I just put a note on it saying Sticky Spot & work around it. It's not even worth my time trying to de-stick it.

W-M here used to staple the price label on through your fabric, not even in the selvage if you didn't speak up & say STOP - watch where you put that. Now they use labels stuck on rubber bands around the fabric, which is much better.

Every time I see this subject I LOL. Once SIL and I were going on a shopping trip - cha-ching! BIL admonished her to not buy any more "whatever was on his mind that day." I turned to him and said (tongue-in-cheek), "You're not the boss of her." To his credit, he laughed and told us to get going.

Sometimes my inner 5 year old just has to stomp her foot and say what's on her mind.

Our WalMart has the self sticking labels for putting the price on our fabrics now. I love that.

ETA: Major editing!!!! Boy did I mess that statement up. lollll

This message has been edited. Last edited by: paus4quilts,

So...did you wash it yet? How much did it shrink?

Not yet - it's still in the project pipeline. I'll let you know how it went. Or maybe you'll hear about it on the 11 o'clock news if that warning was for real!

UPDATE -- I washed it by hand in the sink in water as hot as my hands could stand, just to see what would happen. It didn't fade, but between the strings on the sides after I was done ironing and the hot water, I lost about 1/2" side-to-side. That may seem like a lot, but if I had wanted 18" of washed fabric, I would have bought more anyway. And I wouldn't have wanted it to shrink like that in a finished quilt or sewing project, so it's better to prewash, despite what the label says!

The world didn't stop & the Quilt Police didn't show up, so I guess I got away with it!

"The world didn't stop & the Quilt Police didn't show up, so I guess I got away with it! "

Yes, I guess you did!