Preshrinking fabric for cloth dolls?

Should you preshrink/prewash your fabrics before making cloth dolls?

Yes... and no.

It depends upon what's important to you:

Why not to prewash fabrics

Fabrics, especially cottons, never look quite so "fresh" after prewashing. This is partly because the sizing* and surface finish wash off, which could be a good thing. In most cases, you'll never wash the doll in a machine anyway, so why worry about shrinkage?

Also, not prewashing saves you considerable time not ironing, too. You can rush home with your new fabrics, and head straight to the cutting table. There's a lot of merit to that.

For one thing, dolls seem to turn out best when the full energy of your brilliant concept is still with you. Pausing to do the mundane, such as washing & drying, can be lethal to that fresh & vital energy.

Also, if the fabric's surface treatment repels inks and paints when you're adding details (such as the face), you can add a couple of drops of a surfactant** to your painting water, to break down the resistance. Prewashing is not necessary.

Why you should prewash fabrics

When fabrics have been treated with sizing and a surface finish, they often won't accept paint, pen, and/or felt marker designs (such as for the face) so well.

If the doll has an accident--something spills on her--you can wash her (carefully, of course) without worrying about puckering and other dismaying problems, when the fabric gets wet for the first time since you bought it. Prewashed fabrics have already shrunk, bled, puckered, and softened as much as they're likely to.

If you always preshrink your fabrics as soon as you bring them home, you can confidently use bits of the same fabric in your wearable art and know that the finished garment can be tossed into the washing machine.

How I preshrink

I trim any loose threads off the fabric. They're going to fray in the laundry, and sometimes end up tangling the fabric into a tight, wrinkled ball by the time the drying is completed.

If it's a small and expensive piece of fabric, I may fray-check the cut edges to prevent further unravelling and fraying. Dritz makes a product, "Fray Check," for this, and other manufacturers have similar products. It's a lifesaver, in my opinion.

I refold the fabric so it is not folded along the same line as it was on the bolt. If you leave it as it was, that line will promptly wear and fade, even in the first washing, so you cannot include that part of the fabric in the finished product.

I always wash the fabric by itself, or in the laundry with items that will not bleed color, and can have colors bleed onto them. For example, my kitchen dishtowels were chosen so they don't show stains. If I'm not concerned about mixing fabric weights, I often wash older blue jeans with my new fabrics, too.

I find that there are three key parts to the preshrinking process:

• The effect of water on the fabric. Some fabrics pucker, wrinkle, and go limp in water. The puckering and wrinkling can be steamed out when you iron. The limpness is resolved with a spray sizing or starch, usually added when you iron. However, if you're going to paint or draw on the fabric, it's best to apply the sizing or starch after you paint or draw, so the pigment is well absorbed.

• The effect of soap and water on the fabric. The colors may run. The fabric may change texture altogether. Almost anything can happen, particularly if you've bought a cotton by an unknown manufacturer, or a mixed-fiber fabric from the markdown bin.

  I like to use cold water the first time I wash a fabric. Some people also add a small amount of vinegar or salt to the water, to set the colors. Or you can use one of those towels that absorbs all running colors in the washing machine.

  Texture changes can usually be remedied with plenty of steam ironing and starch or sizing. However, some fabrics will never look the same as when they were new, which is why some dollmakers prefer not to prewash.

• The effect of dryer heat. I set my dryer on the hottest setting and dry the fabric for over an hour, usually tossing in other loads of laundry rather than wasting dryer heat on just one piece of fabric. In my experience, shrinkage is not eliminated until the fabric has been through two to three hours of dryer heat.

* Sizing: Similar to starch, sizing is a fabric treatment that makes the fibers stiffer, crisper, and "fresher" looking. Sizing washes out in the laundry, but you can replace it in the rinse cycle, or with a spray-on sizing when you iron.

** Surfactant: A product which breaks the surface tension of water, and helps "cut through" the protective layers sometimes applied to stain-resistant (and other) fabrics. I use a Shaklee product called Basic H, and place two or three drops in a pint of water when I'm using watercolors on a doll, if the paint beads too much. But, you can do the same thing with a drop of dishwashing liquid. (Liquid soap intended for washing dishes by hand.)

That's my best advice!

---

YOU ARE HERE: wild art dolls > instructions > preshrinking fabric for cloth dolls?

---