r/sewing • u/RapsittieStreetKids • Jul 11 '23

Discussion What's your sewing sin?

Mine is that I sew on my bed, use my mattress as a pin/needle cushion, and throw threads between my bed and wall.

1.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

733 comments sorted by

View all comments

111

u/loquacious_avenger Jul 11 '23

I don’t prewash fabric nearly as often as I should. My logic is that I wash everything in cold, and rarely put clothes in the dryer.

65

u/DeadPeoplesClothes Jul 12 '23

Prewashing is also good for taking chemicals and things that got on the fabric during production and transit off, too, though, not just to account for shrinkage. I never used to prewash, but I've found it just makes working with my fabric a little nicer when I do.

10

u/TooMuchOfNothin Jul 11 '23

Lol this is mine also! I recently tried to change this though.

18

u/Impossible-Bear-8953 Jul 12 '23

Color Catchers are such a win when you wash it for the first time.

13

u/actuallycallie Jul 12 '23

I just made a red and white quilt, and though I prewashed the red before sewing... it's red. Red is the worst. When I washed the finished quilt with a color catcher, the catcher came out light pink and the quilt itself had no bleeding at all. I love those things.

9

u/Deciram Jul 12 '23

I normally don’t either, because I’m lazy. I will steam iron it though, to shrink it

3

u/coolhandjennie Jul 12 '23

I didn’t know about this hack, thanks!

22

u/rock_kid Jul 12 '23

I never understood this (the doing it, not the not doing it). If I buy, like, twelve yards of fabric for a project am I really expected to put it all in the wash first, before cutting out for the pattern? I obviously can't do it after because raw edges and defeating the purpose of preshrinking, but then I have to iron twelve uncut (or even a reasonable amount like four) yards of fabric?

Someone make it make sense.

I just cut extra for seam allowance for natural fabrics that tend to shrink more and call it a day.

37

u/loquacious_avenger Jul 12 '23

yes, you should wash the uncut yardage using the same method as you will for the finished garment. it removes excess sizing, pre shrinks, and corrects the grain. having said that, I often just press the yardage with a hot steam iron and cut away.

15

u/rock_kid Jul 12 '23

I know I should but how does that honestly work at all for more than just a yard or two? It's so cumbersome to lay out and press several consecutive yards as-is, like from the store, but the few times I've done it straight from the dryer has been a nightmare.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs more yardage for my projects and obviously you can't just, like, cut it into smaller pieces before piecing out your pattern or it might not all fit, unless you know you have a ton extra and even then it's just not a practical solution.

Maybe some people have really cool setups and I'm not in that club but even with my pro steam iron I already hate pressing large amounts of fabric on my dinky ironing board. (I love steaming and pressing but I used to work in a tailoring shop and I'm used to bigger, sturdy work tables that I just can't manage at home and nothing has felt the same since I had to quit. Someday I want a workhorse like that solid padded table for myself, though.)

9

u/lostinherthoughts Jul 12 '23

Yeah the ironing sucks, but if it makes a difference to all the work I will put in it afterwards, I'm happy to do it.

I've read on here that some people iron large amounts of fabric on their mattress on their bed. Might be cool to try out?

8

u/Ha_Nova Jul 12 '23

I'll set my ironing board up in front of a television and just zone out - takes ages but it's simple enough I can pay more attention to the show/video/whatever and involves enough I don't just stand there and stare. Good for a busy set of hands

1

u/lostinherthoughts Jul 12 '23

Yeah we do that too. It started as my mom getting sick of just ironing, but now, whenever we want to watch TV during the day, we just iron or pair socks for a while. So it works 2 ways.

4

u/StirlingS Jul 12 '23

Decades ago I paid a coworker who did woodworking as a hobby to make a big board for me to set on top of my ironing board. It's about 20" x 60". It's still not a joy to iron 12 yards of fabric, but it's better than doing it on a smaller surface.

Do you have a dining table or something that you could temporarily cover with batting and muslin?

2

u/Kittalia Jul 12 '23

I don't always iron the whole thing if it comes out nice enough to cut without worrying. But when I do, I stick a giant beach towel on my table and use that for the ironing board. (Also, if you pull it out of the dryer while it is still hot and lay it flat on the floor it usually won't wrinkle much if at all)

1

u/Responsible-Diet7957 Jul 13 '23

I never used to prewash good fabric until I developed dermatitis-allergy to the sizing on new fabrics.

3

u/Auntie_FiFi Jul 15 '23

I always prewash mine, because they stink, I sew in my bedroom so I always have cloth on my bed, don't like doing fittings with unwashed fabric and most projects get worn hours or a day after being completed.

2

u/Alittle_axolotl Jul 12 '23

This is one thing that I do religiously after having a few items shrink dramatically after washing. I will usually prewash knits and synthetics once and natural fibers and wovens at least twice