To pre-wash, or not to pre-wash?

[delladea]

Everyone seems to have their own views on when prewashing is appropriate. I was taught to always, always pre-wash my fabric lest I anger the sewing gods and end up with unpredictable shrinkage and bleeding on first wash. The majority of my sewing experience has been with quilter's cotton, shirting, and reclaimed t-shirt knits.

I have this bag pattern and I have a few yards of thick, dark denim from my stash that I want to use for this bag. I've never ever used brand new denim fabric before and am afraid if I wash it first I may end up with light streaks through the fabric. Not sure if its relevant, but I'm also planning to hand-embroider a design on the outside flap.

So, what would you do in this situation? TIA!

Edit: Thank you to everyone who commented. I confess to having a bad experience washing some dark, unfaded jeans once that left streaks all over the legs which left me leery. I decided to give pre-washing a go with some other dark denim items. :)

Comments

[greenwitch]

I would, personally. I always pre-wash everything for apparel, but not always for accessories, since they're less likely to need to be washed in general. However, since it's a diaper bag, the chances of something being spilled on it are higher than say, a handbag would be, so it's probably going to be machine washed at some point.

[delladea]

Good point about this bag being more likely to get messy.

I think I'm leaning toward pre-washing it now, maybe not the whole length of what I have but a piece just big enough for the bag with a couple pairs of jeans thrown in.

[suncat]

Since it's denim, I would definitely pre-wash it. Also, the really dark stuff still has a tendency to bleed off dye on first washing. I'm sure you'll follow the rule of "wash with like colors", but still.

[delladea]

I had thought about the dye bleeding. greenwitch made a point about this bag being more likely to get messy (something which I honestly didn't think about initially) making it more likely a wash will be required sometime in the bag's lifetime. I'm now thinking I'll wash it with some other pairs of dark jeans in hopes the fabric doesn't crumple too much.

[weaverbird]

I would definitely prewash fabric for a bag, so that the bag itself could be washed without problems. Very impractical to have a utility bag you can't clean, because it's almost certain to need it eventually!

My experience with new denim is that you get lots of dye bleeding out into the first wash, but the fabric doesn't change color or get streaky, so you should be fine.

[delladea]

Good to know you've had positive denim washing experiences. :) I was leery because I bought a pair of dark, unfaded jeans once that streaked badly when I washed them the first time.

And yes, I hadn't thought of this bag getting messy on occasion initially. I'm thinking I'll pre-wash it with some other dark jeans.

[stlscape]

Re denim jeans streaking when washed, always wash them inside out. That minimizes the "crazing". /voice of experience

[pinesandmaples]

+1

[all_adream]

I would also definitely prewash, since the bag will *certainly* get wet in its life, and especially if you go to the effort to embroider nice things--it would be a shame to have all sorts of funky blue-purple-other stains appear later--good luck on this nice project! Show us when you finish maybe please...

[delladea]

All good points. :)

Oh yes, there will be pictures upon completion!

[snippy]

I prewash because I want to be able to wash the things I make. I even prewash iron-on interfacing and I find I'm getting much better results (by hand, just get it wet with warm water then drip-dry).