We're doing fine so far just using the clothesline, saving the laundry for nice days, and in a pinch just hanging things indoors, on the back porch.
The one thing I miss is not being able to preshrink fabric! I can still wash it in hot water, but I cannot blast it with high heat in the dryer, so I always fear there is some shrinkage left lurking in it somewhere. I have a piece of green batik I need to preshrink before I can use it on a quilt border. It would not matter except that the entire quilt is made up of preshrunk fabric so far. If the borders are not preshrunk I'm afraid the whole thing will end up looking like a big patchwork mushroom the first time I wash it.
4 comments:
Do you have a laundromat locally where you could use a dryer from time to time to preshrink fabric? I've heard such places still exist.
Knock on the neighbors door ... better yet, call first ... and arrive with a little home baked goodie for use of her dryer. BTW .. are you planning on getting another dryer? I'm using mine less and less, but it is nice when I don't time line use or weather conditions and need clothes dried PDQ.
Yes, maybe you can find a laundromat. I only have a clothes line and I would love to be able to pre-shrink sometimes.
I would think hot water would be sufficient to shrink any cotton fabric, without the dryer. I turn around and press my fabric before cutting it, so I'd think the hot iron would finish up the shrinking. (That sounds like it would do the opposite, but you're just flattening out the wrinkles.) I've never thought to do it, but maybe someone has or should wash two pieces of the same fabric, say a yard each, and dry one in a dryer and one just hung up somewhere to see if there's a significant difference.
Post a Comment