A Quilter's Quest

Fabric Preparation

 

How to prepare the fabric before quilting is really controversial.  Wow!    To prewash or not to pre-wash.  To simply trim the precut fabric or to straighten it.  I have innocently been the cause of a storm of reaction all because I tore my fabric in public.  Horrors!

 

When I read Harriet's (and Sharyn Craig's) book, The Art of Classic Quiltmaking, and Harriet said she didn't prewash her fabric, I thought, "Great, that will really save some time."  I grew up sewing clothing and you always have to prewash your fabric or your blouse or dress or pants won't fit after the first wash.  It wasn't until I took Quilter's Academy I that I learned that prewashing or not depends on your preferences and work styles.  (It's not that Harriet didn't say this in the The Art of Classic Quiltmaking book; I was in a hurry to get started and didn't read any further).  It depends on what kind of quilt you are making or how you like to handle the fabric.  Once I found out that incorrect prewashing can lead to fading or bleeding fabrics, and that it's easier to handle fabric that has not been prewashed, that settled it for me.

 

OK, so most people don't want to chop someone's head off bcs that person doesn't prewash her/his fabric.  That part comes with the next step:  straightening fabric.

 

A lot of fabric produced today is not straight because the fabric is not wrapped onto the bolt evenly.  Also, fabric can be printed off-grain.  If you use unstraightened and off-grain fabric right from the store, you may have distortion and stretching in your quilt top.  So you need to straighten your fabric.  It 's not hard, but does take a bit of time.  So far in my quilting journey, I'm finding that using straightened fabric is a good thing.  I haven't had any of my fabric "act up" or distort out of place yet.  You'll need to buy up to 1/4 yd. additional fabric for each fabric in the quilt for the straightening unless you use fat quarters (FQ).  For fat quarters, you straighten each FQ, so you won't be able to use the entire FQ.

 

For some people, the idea of straightening fabric makes them crazy.  They argue about the cost - which is true -at $12/ yd. if you have to buy 1/4 yd, more, it is expensive.  Yet if you spend $200 - $300 on fabric for your quilt and then spend $200 - $400 to have it quilted, and it doesn't hang straight and is all distorted, what have you gained in saving an extra $10 - $20 or so?

 

Tip:  After 5 years of taking Harriet's classes, I have found out what she says works, works.  She says try it out, and see for yourself.  And I have.  So far, the extra time and trouble of straightening fabric is working for me.  Be sure when you do this that you tear both ends of the fabric.  It really is easier to work with 1/2  lengths, like Harriet says.  I have done 1 yd. lengths, but 1/2 yard increments are easier and faster to work with.  And starch the heck out of the fabric - it needs to be stiff - not like cardboard, but stiff enough that it is easy to sew.

 

And, wouldn't you know, I had fabric printed off-grain for my class project for the Quilter's Academy I class, the Town Square quilt.  I had to use it on-print, off grain, because when I straightened the fabric it was on-grain, off-print:

For now, I will continue to straighten my fabric, but mostly in the privacy of my own home.