Why wash your new fabric in HOT water?
#11
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Sonoma County, CA
Posts: 4,299
Interesting - you must have a more modern machine than I do. I haven't tested but mine seems to be same temp as the tap, and since it's right next to the water heater it comes out pretty darn toasty - I know it's hot enough to feel very unpleasant and make my hand red if I have to stick it in there! I don't think mine tests or regulates the hot temperature at all, it's just whatever comes out of the tap. (I don't have a manual anymore or I'd check; my machine is 15+ years old and beat to death...but still works!)
#12
When I make baby quilts I prewash in hot and then wash the completed quilt in hot water prior to giving them away. I do it so I can tell the recipient that if baby has an "oopsie" that the quilt is designed to survive a hot water wash and in fact has already gone through a couple.
I did the same with the quilts I made for my DH's grandmother, who is permanently bedridden. Things happen (food spills, and other) and I wanted to make sure her quilts were going to hold up to lots of hot washes.
I did the same with the quilts I made for my DH's grandmother, who is permanently bedridden. Things happen (food spills, and other) and I wanted to make sure her quilts were going to hold up to lots of hot washes.
#14
Power Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 16,515
If it is a quilt for hospitals, nursing homes, or the like the quilts are not washed separately from the linens or blankets. They are washed in hot water with strong detergent and dried in a hot dryer. I had a quilting friend gasp when I tossed my just finished hand appliqued, hand quilted quilt in the wash with Tide and color safe bleach on the hot setting. If it won't survive that first wash then why make it to begin with? A good quilt wash can be a humbling experience. After the first hot wash the quilts I use are not washed again until soiled.
#15
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 947
I no longer prewash my fabrics -- ever. And I don't pre-wash the all-cotton batting I use either.
I made my grandmother a quilt with lots of piecing and applique-- using a fabric line called Aviary by moda. Her nursing home staff threw it into the hot water wash on a weekly basis for over a year. After she died, my mom gave the quilt back to me; it was slightly faded from the original colors ( I still have scraps to compare) but the quilt was not distorted, shredded, shrunken, or mutilated. It's really quite impressive.
So, my take away is -- feel free to do whatever you want to your fabric and your finished quilts. Maybe you know something about the fabric that suggests that pre-treating is key. But honestly, for myself, I don't think it's important and it's not how I choose to use my crafting time.
I made my grandmother a quilt with lots of piecing and applique-- using a fabric line called Aviary by moda. Her nursing home staff threw it into the hot water wash on a weekly basis for over a year. After she died, my mom gave the quilt back to me; it was slightly faded from the original colors ( I still have scraps to compare) but the quilt was not distorted, shredded, shrunken, or mutilated. It's really quite impressive.
So, my take away is -- feel free to do whatever you want to your fabric and your finished quilts. Maybe you know something about the fabric that suggests that pre-treating is key. But honestly, for myself, I don't think it's important and it's not how I choose to use my crafting time.
#16
Power Poster
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Mableton, GA
Posts: 11,355
I no longer prewash my fabrics -- ever. And I don't pre-wash the all-cotton batting I use either.
I made my grandmother a quilt with lots of piecing and applique-- using a fabric line called Aviary by moda. Her nursing home staff threw it into the hot water wash on a weekly basis for over a year. After she died, my mom gave the quilt back to me; it was slightly faded from the original colors ( I still have scraps to compare) but the quilt was not distorted, shredded, shrunken, or mutilated. It's really quite impressive.
So, my take away is -- feel free to do whatever you want to your fabric and your finished quilts. Maybe you know something about the fabric that suggests that pre-treating is key. But honestly, for myself, I don't think it's important and it's not how I choose to use my crafting time.
I made my grandmother a quilt with lots of piecing and applique-- using a fabric line called Aviary by moda. Her nursing home staff threw it into the hot water wash on a weekly basis for over a year. After she died, my mom gave the quilt back to me; it was slightly faded from the original colors ( I still have scraps to compare) but the quilt was not distorted, shredded, shrunken, or mutilated. It's really quite impressive.
So, my take away is -- feel free to do whatever you want to your fabric and your finished quilts. Maybe you know something about the fabric that suggests that pre-treating is key. But honestly, for myself, I don't think it's important and it's not how I choose to use my crafting time.
I'm pretty sure I won't change anybody's mind, but that's okay. To each his/her own.
#17
Thanks for all the input. I 'get' the part about choosing to pre-wash or not; with me it's a sometimes thing ... mostly depends on the fabric and I test a small piece for color-fastness if I decide not to pre-wash. It was only the hot water washing that had me mystified. I very rarely wash anything at all in hot water and certainly not quilts I've made ... so, I wondered why people do.
#18
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Tampa Bay Area, Florida
Posts: 2,229
If I prewash, and I only do if I'm mixing fabric types (such as cotton and flannel), or I'm really concerned I might have a bleeder, I use whatever water temp I would normally use when washing it later.
#19
Super Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 4,688
I wash hot and dry hot the batting, fabric and then the quilt. Learned my lesson when I gave a table runner to DD with out washing anything. DGS lost it at the table and the table runner did not survive the hot water wash to clean it up.
DD has a new washer with a sanitize setting and just had to wash a whole bed of linens and a bunch of clothes at that setting to clean up after a sick child and the I Spy duvet I made survived (and I think the water temp is hotter than normal hot).
DD has a new washer with a sanitize setting and just had to wash a whole bed of linens and a bunch of clothes at that setting to clean up after a sick child and the I Spy duvet I made survived (and I think the water temp is hotter than normal hot).
#20
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: N.E. England
Posts: 1,171
Interesting - you must have a more modern machine than I do. I haven't tested but mine seems to be same temp as the tap, and since it's right next to the water heater it comes out pretty darn toasty - I know it's hot enough to feel very unpleasant and make my hand red if I have to stick it in there! I don't think mine tests or regulates the hot temperature at all, it's just whatever comes out of the tap. (I don't have a manual anymore or I'd check; my machine is 15+ years old and beat to death...but still works!)
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