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This is the latest at Tabitha Quilts regarding our fabrics and the considerations which you may have as you quilt- using any fabric purchased anywhere. | ||||||
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 a slice of "Star Mountain" bed sized quilt 1995 | |||||
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Regarding Dupioni Silks from India Even though T. Q. has been selling these goods for years, we are never too old to learn something new... An unhappy customer, having purchased 4 yards of deep red-purple silk for a dress, called to say that when she pre-soaked this beautiful color, it bled so much it turned the water extremely pink. She said she changed the water many times and it kept happening. Although we were aware of some bleeding in the past, we had never seen it like this. So, we pieced-up some silk test banners, using all the silk colors we have. We ran an experiment with various methods... pre-soaking in plain cold water; dry cleaning; we even re-tried the old advice we've been giving for years (that is: machine wash* cool, on the delicate cycle, using Ivory Snow; then line-dry); we also pieced silks in with cottons of like colors, using the above washing* instructions... here is what we discovered: | |
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Some of these Indian Dupioni Silk colors do not like sitting in water!
We found, not surprisingly, that there is no bleeding with dry cleaning (and in fact, this is the method recommended by the importer, Silktex).
It appears that the reds-through-purples have the most bleeding problem.
We also found that, when these goods are pieced or sewn with like colors (we used cottons), given a quick cool wash and line-dried, bleeding isn't a permanent problem. In other words, there is some bleeding in the wash water, however, when finished, there is no bleeding effect onto fabrics.
The worst bleeding results we saw were from allowing the goods to sit for hours in water--(therefore, we don't recommend that!) |
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So here is our advice: 1.) This Indian Dupioni is best used in smaller amounts, pieced in with like colors- -it works very well with cotton prints. 2.) We don't recommend using it for an entire garment which will be worn directly next to lingerie (for the obvious reason that the lingerie might take up the dye... this means, not for a dress or shirt, etc.) However quilts, home-decor, or layered or outerwear clothing (such as vests, jackets, etc.) are the best use. 3.) Either dry-clean, or do a quick, cool water machine wash (say 15 minutes including rinse, on the delicate cycle) - or by hand- (using Ivory Snow or other laundry soap that does not contain phosphate --which leaches out color). Line dry, away from the sun.
Remember: washing will likely yield some bleeding, especially in the red-purple range.
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Regarding why, at Tabitha Quilts, we tear our yardage rather than cut with scissors or a rotary cutter: In the printing of yard-goods, the weave of the fabric is not always straight, as it goes through the giant printing machines. Who knows why? Probably because it take up too much time to stop and line things up properly, or maybe the fabric itself is not woven straight, or perhaps the tension is too tight when the fabric is being wrapped on the tubes, and bolts -- all of which could also be due to time considerations... and, in the manufacturing process, time is money, right? (We could get into an entire philosophical discussion about: if we want better -- i. e. "straighter" -- yard goods, we have to be prepared to pay more for the time it takes someone, somewhere to stop the machines and line everything up correctly, etc. -- but, as it is, most of us think fabric is already too dearly priced. But that's another story, for another day...) In the meantime, the way to tell if the fabric is really "crooked" or not, is by tearing the yardage, right off the bolt. No doubt about it, that tearing-sound does set one's teeth on edge ... but it is the most predictable way of telling what the true grain of the fabric is. And, we do want to know what the true grain is, and where the true straight edge is, so we can cut from that edge. Then all our quilts and hemlines, etc., will hang right and drape beautifully. When yardage is cut rather than torn (given the above, that it may be woven slightly crooked), you can't tell if it is a true-grain or not...with predictable results, for the way the quilt, or hemline, hangs. And we wonder where all that "waviness" comes from, when we finally hang up our beautiful new quilts which we faithfully tried to cut so straight! Now, at T.Q., we sometimes hear objections to tearing because some fabrics show little "pulls" in the threads along the torn-edge, or the torn-edge is a bit "ruffled". Our way of dealing with those concerns is to give a free 1-1/2" extra on all measurements. So, if that torn edge is slightly marred, then it can be trimmed -off but because it is along the true grain, all subsequents cuts can be made predictably straight when lined-up from that edge. Thus, when we measure a half-yard, it is really 19-1/2", or a yard is 37-1/2", etc. It costs T.Q. a tiny-bit more to do it this way, but at least we know that fabrics are starting off right, with the true grain of the fabric along the torn edge. | |
