Burda Style For people who sew

I always prewash fabric before I make clothes for myself. I’m thinking of making a small line of clothing for selling and I wonder how people solve the shrinkage issue in these cases. It seems like prewashing and ironing all this fabric would be much too much work, however, I wouldn’t want to sell clothes that will shrink after the first wash. How do people solve this problem?

May 5, 2011, 07.09 AM by peaudane

• ShareThis

9 Posts

• 

  May 5, 2011, 09.10 AMby lie

  Maybe you can try washing just one piece of the fabric. Measure it before and after. If it does shrink I think you should consider washing all the fabric before using it.
• 

  May 5, 2011, 09.37 AMby magdamagda

  I don’t cut without preshrinking first!
• 

  May 5, 2011, 11.14 AMby katexxxxxx

  Before you go into the wash/don’t wash religious wars, read the stuff about the CPSiA if you intend to make or sell in the USA… http://www.fashion-incubator.com/category/cpsia/
• 

  May 5, 2011, 11.46 AMby peaudane

  I’m curious to know what other people do. I’m not under the impression that most people bother to prewash for items they plan to sell, but I may be wrong!
• 

  May 5, 2011, 12.44 PMby sewingfan1

  If you always prewash fabrics for your own clothes then why risk not doing it for items you want to sell? It doesn’t take too much effort does it?

  1 Reply

  • 

    May 5, 2011, 01.05 PMby katexxxxxx

    Remember to add the price of the wash and the time it takes you to wash, dry, and iron the cloth before making up… Does that price it out of the range that others are selling similar items for? If so, don’t. People don’t usually expect garments to be pre washed. Just allow for shrinkage and make sure your selling info includes the expected percentage for shrinking.

• 

  May 5, 2011, 01.05 PMby peaudane

  sewingfan1, Of course it makes sense, but I’m just wondering if people actually do it, that’s all.

  1 Reply

  • 

    May 5, 2011, 07.14 PMby sewingfan1

    Ah ha, I’d have no idea about that cos I’m very greedy and selfish and I only make things for myself. (and it’s very rare that I prewash the fabric I use cos I’m also lazy)

• 

  May 5, 2011, 01.10 PMby peaudane

  kate, that’s pretty much what I was thinking. I’m interested in what you said about giving info for expected percentage of shrinking. I don’t think i’ve seen it anywhere but it makes sense, though I wonder if it might actually scare people off to think about shrinkage.

  1 Reply

  • 

    May 5, 2011, 03.20 PMby katexxxxxx

    It doesn’t scare me off when I see it. Usually appears on T shirts and stuff like that rather than anything else. Most fabrics are ‘needle ready’ here in the UK. If in doubt, allow 10%.

• 

  May 6, 2011, 10.41 PMby ryannloves

  You could just mention that the fabric might shrink so it’s recommended that the buyer only hand washes or dry cleans the garment, especially since it’s a good idea to treat handmade clothing differently. I rarely ever wash handmade clothing like I do with my other clothes or I wash them and hang them to dry. Since I don’t have a serger, I’m always afraid of fraying. Just a suggestion!
• 

  May 8, 2011, 07.12 AMby VintageFusion

  Doing a cert in seamstressing and my teacher said that you must always prewash natural fibers but it is not needed for synthetic fibers. Though for fibers that are blended (synthetic and natural) it is needed. So if you prewash everything it is not needed for synthetic which will cut down time as synthetics don’t shrink.

  Keep in mind that there are always different washing instructions depending on the type of material so of course if it is not meant to be washed in warm/hot water and someone buys it and does this it may cause shrinkage too with synthetics thats not included in my case.