scrapinmema

I have a flannel rag quilt cut and ready to sew and did not prewash my fabric. Will put a batting in between and put an X in each block to keep the batting in place. Have never tried the fleece.

gmabrown

thank you I did put an x in the middle. I'll let y'all know how it turns out, Thanks again for the help,

Halo

I have found that, like all other fabrics, some flannels will shrink more than others. It all depends on how heavy the flannel is. I have made several rag quilts, top & bottom, out of fleece & they are awesome. Everyone dearly loves them & they last forever & very warm quilts. They are all my G-kids favorite quilts & I have 15 G-kids. Am now planning for my almost 4 Gt-G-kids fleece quilts.

ManiacQuilter2

Neither have I. don't really care for the bulk that fleece has going thru my Bernina. Only have used flannel.

tessagin

I pre-wash everything including fleece and flannel. Customers can be so inconsiderate handling material. I do it for pre-shrinkage and washing any sizing that may be in it. Also can't stand the smell. I've seen customers rub the material against their faces. Does anyone realize how many others have rubbed their faces in to the material to feel the softness. where have they been? Only trying to make others think about consequences of transferred body oils! I know gross right!?!!

JanieH

I bought good flannel to use as batting and prewashed it. I was amazed and somewhat horrified at how much it shrunk and how unevenly it did. I had to go buy more and do the whole process again in order to have enough. I am still not sure that I will use it as it seems so misshapened and I am going to have to cut and piece it together.

wraez

I always launder flannel twice, it can really shrink, tho guessing that there are some that do not shrink as much but why take the chance.

carolynjo

Flannel is notorious for shrinking, not just once but several times, so I wash mine at least 3 times. Fleece does not shrink, so you don't need to preshrink it. I don't think I would mix the two.

Gerbie

I always prewash my fabric, and have never really used flannel in my quilting but since this is the subject of this thread I have a question about flannel. My niece is having a little one in August, and I saw a really cute self binding tute on MSQ for baby receiving blankets so do all of you who are familiar with working with flannel recommend that I prewash before making the blankets or would the small size make a great deal of difference - the blankets will be about 30"square.

Prism99

I would definitely prewash and dry (maybe twice) before making baby blankets. Some flannels don't shrink at all, but most shrink a *lot* -- and in unpredictable ways. If you use one of those flannels and don't prewash, the first time the nice baby blanket is washed it is likely to distort and not lay flat anymore.

Degree of shrinkage in a flannel can vary with the grain, so you can get 10% shrinkage in one direction and 15% in another. This is not a problem with yardage, as you can iron flat and are good to go, but it can be a big problem in a bound blanket (even self-bound).