Fabric Rolls

Yesterday I was given two of these by a friend:

I think she received them as giveaways with a magazine subscription, but she didn't want them. I've never used these precut strips, and thought I could have a bit of fun with them. I was a bit worried by the instruction to "Prewash before making", though. How do you prewash narrow strips of fabric without making a huge tangled mess of frayed threads and knotted strips? (A couple of people have suggested lingerie bags as the solution.) The fact that the fabric was made in India made me suspect that either the colour would run badly, the fabric would shrink badly, or both.

I decided to make one block with the darkest colour and some white fabric, then wash it and see what happened:

As you can see, the colour did run. There is a certain amount of fraying, but not as much as there would be washing the individual strips. And the colour which ran did not seem to be picked up by the white fabric, except where it remained in contact as it dried - ie in the seams. So I think I will go ahead and make the blocks and wash the whole thing at the end. The pattern is A Walk in the Park by Ellie Roberts.

If you have any of these "Muted Moments" fabric rolls stashed away, be careful with them. This one is not cut straight, and all the strips are narrower than the stated width for the first few cms on either side, and wider than the stated width in the middle of the strip. Perhaps there's a good reason they were giving them away! I wouldn't advise using them in a precious quilt.