One of my goals is to develop a great fitting pair of pants. This afternoon I decided to pre-wash the denim fabrics that I have in my stash. Pre-washing is a good idea for several reasons:
- It pre-shrinks the fabric. Why spend a lot of time creating a garment that fits only once (before it gets laundered). All of my clothing has to be able to survive the washing machine, so it gets tossed in the washing machine, on HOT if it's cotton. I don't dry clean a lot of my clothing, so I try to be brutal when pre-washing.
- It gets rid of lint. I try to clean/vacuum my sewing machine after each project, vacuuming the bobbin area, the needle uptake, etc. I used to wonder where all the dust came from. I buy a lot of my fabric from fabric jobbers, where the fabrics probably been stored in less than desirable locations (less than desirable = open air, on the ground, outside in parking lots, garages, etc.) This means that the fabric picks up a lot of dust. I don't store my fabrics away in a closet, they are pretty much out in open air in my apartment, so this means, MORE dust. Pre-washing removes a lot of lint. I pre-washed some corduroy (still unsewn) and the dryer's lint case was full. Well, now I know the origin of the dust.
- It removes any chemicals or sizing that remain in the fabric. Some sewists have had problems with allergies, I haven't had problems, but pre-washing couldn't hurt.
I'm sure that there are other good reasons, but these are the reasons I do it.
Well, I discovered that one of the pieces of denim is crocked, that it it's shedding dye all over the place. The fabric was fine (it didn't shed anything) until it was in the washing machine an dryer. The washing machine was full of lint, but nothing unusual since I didn't finish the ends of the yardage before I tossed it in the washing machine. The dryer was worse--after I removed the fabric, the dryer was full of a dry black dust--stuff that had flaked off of the black denim. I had to wipe it down for about 10 minutes. The lint case was full of black dust, not fibers, but dust. And worse, when I put the fabric on the clothes line (did I mention that it was 5.5. yards?) the dust that was still on the fabric flaked off on my sweatshirt and on the clothes line. Yuck. I hope that the dye piece flake off the clothesline and don't stain my neighbors' clothing. I folded up the piece as best I could and I put in a garbage bag in my car trunk. I just could not face bringing it back into my apartment.
I purchased this piece of fabric online from a coop and I read that some of the other purchasers had reported some problems when the fabric was washed. It looks like there are two sets of black denim that were sold: one set that is crocked and the other set that shreds/falls apart after being sewn. I'm not certain if my purchase was from the group that shreds apart. If it is, then I'll free-cycle it. I was able to put some synthrapol in the washing machine, so the dye did not travel to the other piece of cheaper fabric chainstore denim.
The next question, should the 5.5 yards count in my stash-busting? :)
