How To Wash And Maintain Quilting Fabrics

By Author: mary parker
Total Articles: 207
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As with any other piece of décor at home, maintenance for quilts made out of the best quilting fabics needs to be taken care of. This means washing it the right way would play a great role in its maintenance for a long time to come. You have to wash your quilt fabrics before they are assembled and made into masterpieces, so that all extra dyes and colors are taken out of it. This would also allow the fabric of the quilt some stretching time, which would eventually give it a “worn” look that seems to be natural. Patchwork fabric has a different way of maintenance altogether and is quite unlike the way you would take care of quilt fabrics.

The first thing to consider when washing quilting fabic is to know the quality of fabrics the quilt is made of. Most quilts traditionally have pure cotton used or mix of cotton like material to make quilts. Cotton is by far the most natural fiber available; it is very easily available and is hardy at the same time. The fabric thus is available in a range of colors and patterns for you to choose from and hence is the most preferred fiber when making clothes as well. As you would ...
... check for the material type when choosing patchwork fabic, you should do the same for quilt fabric. This will let you know what sort of detergents you could use to get the quilt fabric treated.

Talking about the detergents to use, it would be best to have one which has no scents. And always choose a detergent which is color free to treat quilting fabic. The detergent shouldn’t have any softeners in them; remember softeners can kill the fibers of the fabric, just as dyes and scents would. If you are planning to use bleach on the quilt or patchwork fabric, it would ruin the colors, kill the fibers and ultimately corrode the whole décor piece in no time. The instructions on the bottle of the detergent should be read carefully, and followed as well. There are additives used in the detergents which can do more harm to the quilt fabric than good.

If you use the washing machine to clean the quilting fabics, hot water shouldn’t be used. The detergent should be added while the water fills into the tank of the machine. Do the stirring with your own bare hands as well, because this will tell you that your detergent has blended and dissolved well with the water.

Next step would be to put in the quilt and use the regular style of cold and warm washing cycles, just as you would do for patchwork fabric items. Don’t dry the quilt in the sun, sunlight has a tendency to face the colors of the fabric. And never wring the quilt, the creases created would be permanent and would be of stress to the material of the quilt. You can however for quilting fabics, Moda fabrics or even patchwork fabrics use the good old method of hand washing, but are you up to the hard work behind it?
If you would like to purchase patchwork fabric or quilting fabic which can give a stylish look to your home click on the links.