Thursday Tip with Hali - Pre-washing your Fabric

Thursday Tip // Pre-washing your fabric⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Pre-washing is one of those extra steps before sewing that you might loathe but it’s also the step that could save your me-mades from accidental death by dryer. Here are a few tips for pre-washing your fabric. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Pre-wash your fabric in the same way you intend to wash your handmade garment. Sometimes throwing your fabric in the dryer for a bit, even if you intend to lay flat or line dry, can take a bit of that extra shrinkage out just in case your finished garment ends up where it wasn’t meant to go. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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For woven fabrics, serge (or zig zag) the cut edges before washing. This will keep them from unravelling and making a tangled mess of threads in your washer. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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For fabrics that tend to wrinkle a lot in the dryer (I’m looking at you, Linen!) try drying on a low heat setting for only 5-10 min. Take the damp fabric out and lay flat to dry. This should take care of some shrinkage but also keeps the wrinkles at bay so you have less ironing to do before cutting.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Lastly, if you are nervous about washing a certain type of fabric, cut a swatch to test out your method!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Do you have a preferred method for pre-washing?