Dawn asks:
I just received my fabric in the mail; a flannel coating and a melton wool. I put 5" squares in the washer and dryer and it came out beautifully w/o shrinking much at all. Is there a problem with putting the wool in the washer/dryer? The melton seemed to not change at all and the flannel got a little beefier but basically feels the same. Do I dare throw them in the washer and then dry them? I would put them in separately.
Marji: Dawn, if you're not worried about your wool felting (and Melton is already felted to a degree) then if it's working for you, have at it. I don't recommend throwing your finished coat, with all the shaping of the lapels etc, in the washer and dryer. Typically you preshrink to the level you'll be cleaning your finished garment. I don't throw wool in the washer and dryer, but there may be some here who do. You want to be aware that everytime you put your wool in the washer and dryer it' s likely to felt a little bit more - continuing the shrink process. It has to do with the structure of the wool fiber. If someone has a wool that they have more than enough of, and they want to felt it a bit to make it more impervious to wind and cold, then felting it deliberately is a good idea.
fabricluver (Susan) asks about mounting the underlining to her mohair coating fabric.
Marji: I'll cover mounting underlining to the fashion fabric in July, for everyone who's mounting it. If you want to look ahead, there are pics of mounted underlining on fashion fabrics on the Diva's site and I'm sure on other sites, and in several published sources. For June I'm only concerned about getting fabrics prepped and getting muslins fit.
fabricluver (Susan) asks: One more question: should I preshrink the silk organza? If so, what method?
Nancy K responded: Preshrinking silk organza is easy. Throw it in the wash and dryer. I'd serge it together at the ends. Marji added: I preshrink silk organza by washing it in cool water, delicate, then line drying it—I don't throw my silk organza in the dryer. Shannon, do you want to weigh in here? I know you wash all your silks.
Marji: Upon further thinking on the shrinking "not much at all" phrase in Dawn's comment on washing the wool, I'm wondering how much "not much" is. Was it 1/8" over 5", 1/4" over 5", or more? Did the fabric shrink more in the warp than the weft? I remember doing some experiments a couple of years ago with wool flannel, and washing swatches, measureing them, then washing them again, and re-measuring. I don't have the swatches or data here at my fingertips, but I do remember that the shrinkage was not even, Warp/weft; and it was not predictable in successive washings.
I also remember starting knitting a sweater a year ago. I knit my swatch, and blocked it, and it grew in the blocking, but I wasn't concerned. After all, it was just a little bit. It was 1/4" over 4". Over the circumference of the sweater though - it added up to a lot. A 40" sweater, growing at a rate of 1/4" per 4" ended up at 42.5. Which changed the fit. I ended up ripping the whole thing out.
If your shrinkage is 1/4" over 5" on the weft, and you start with 60" wide fabric, you end up with 57" wide fabric.
If you also shrink in the warp, and you didn't buy extra fabric, you may not be able to lay out your coat. So be sure what your expected rate of shrinkage is, and figure out if you'll have enough fabric before you run your fabric through the washer and dryer.
