[cybele727]

Hello everyone:

When sewing with Rayon what do you do?

Do you pre-wash?

Do you pre-wash only if you intend to wash?

Do you intend to dry clean rayon?

Can you/should you wash rayon?

How do you handle it??

[Sarvi]

I’ll be watching this thread with interest. I have only used rayon once, for the skirt of a dress with a cotton bodice. I had to wash it as I’d dyed it with indigo, and thereafter I machine washed it along with other cottons. I have probably machine dried it by accident once or twice (kids’ clothes always sneak in there) but usually line dry. It started off and remained very soft, but being a kid’s dress it was quickly outgrown and sent off to a new home before getting a significant amount of wear.

[Brittney]

I always prewash everything. I make sure when I buy Rayon that it is a kind that can be washed, I don’t have the time to hand wash or to take it to the cleaners.

I typically wash in warm and then dry on medium heat the first time, because there is a very good chance it will eventually slip past me and end up being dried or washed warm so it’s best to get the shrinkage out of the way. When I pay attention to the laundry, though, I wash in cold and hang dry then iron as needed. I sew quite a bit with rayon and never have had a problem.

[jax]

I wash everything in my machine, even wool as it has a setting for it. I would was it on cold on a gentle setting and hang dry. Dry cleaning is for the birds.

[cybele727]

I’m sold! I will wash and dry my rayon!

[Liesl Gibson]

I’m with the group: I wash and dry my fabric before cutting and then line dry after sewing. The wash and dry is a just-in-case precaution–because every once in a while something sneaks into the drier. But rayon is a pretty durable fabric, for the most part, so you should be fine with machine washing.