Preparing Crinkle Cotton to Sew

[FoxFire]

So I have purchased some crinkle cotton for some garb (new fairwear chemise). I made one of this fabric approximately 14 years ago with my Nana's  help and loved it, but sadly, given its age, it is in dire need of replacement. I have no memory of how we prepared the fabric. I know I need to wash and dry the fabric to preshrink it, of course. But ordinarily, I would then press the fabric to remove wrinkles. I think you can see where I'm going with this. This fabric is supposed to be wrinkly! Should I just remove it from the dryer and smooth it out nicely before laying it out for cutting? Anyone who has worked with this (or similar) fabric before, please share your insights. Grammercy!

[isabelladangelo]

Wash it, dry it, but do NOT iron it.  Just cut out the two big rectangles for the body, the two small rectangles for the sleeves, and two ~8" squares for the underarm gussets.  Depending on how wide the fabric is, you can probably just cut the fabric into two 1 1/2 yard pieces for the body, one yard piece split in half for the sleeves, and then the two 8'x8' squares.  The edges do not need to be perfect unlike with a fitted garment.

[FoxFire]

Thanks, I figured ironing it was a bad idea. It's been so many years since I worked with this fabric, that I can't remember what we did. I know the width is at least 45 inches, I think it may be 48, actually. I bought a lot of it, I have a pattern and it listed a yardage on the back, but I think the yardage was quite a bit high. I may say to heck with the commercial pattern (it was a whole dollar) and go with the trusty Red Dawn approach. If I do that, I should have enough left over to make a short chemise for my DD who is in need of a new one.

[gem]

I iron my crinkle gauze chemises when they get wrinkly, but the key to avoiding that is to PROMPTLY move the fabric from the wash to the dryer, and to whisk it out of the dryer immediately and hang it up. Wrinkles happen when the cloth is allowed to sit heaped up on itself.

You can definitely iron crinkle fabrics--the crinkles are generally chemically set--but you need a light touch and a practiced sense of when enough's enough. If you're not a... nuanced ironer, it's probably best to avoid it.

[Kate XXXXXX]

I usually find that washing crinkle and drying fabric makes it much more crinkly than it's supposed to be.  I then iron it out to get rid of excess crinkle and unwanted creases.  That done, I then hang it up if at all possible and puff steam at it.  This allows it to re-crinkle to the correct crinkly-ness.  Then cut and make up.  Repeat the iron and crinkle process when you wash it as a garment.

[FoxFire]

Thanks so much for the advice, ladies. Gem, your advice about being a "nuanced" ironer particularly struck home. When I was taught to press things, well, the thing that stuck with me was "remove ALL the wrinkles!" that and "Make extremely crisp creases!" My ironing is hardly nuanced, it's more what one might consider, hmmm...overzealous  Kate, I googled the subject, and saw something similar suggested, however what this seamstress suggested was to immediately hang the cloth and steam it straight from the dryer, rather than iron it in between. The explanation given was that you steam out the creases, similar to what one does to a garment that's been packed while traveling that's gotten a bit rumpled but doesn't require a full pressing. Given my lack of a deft and gentle touch with the iron, perhaps I will try this technique, I would feel better if I did *something* to removed the creases from the fabric, perhaps I'm once again a bit overzealous.

[Meagan]

It would be okay to iron just to have a smooth surface while sewing. Then you can throw it in the washer and dryer when finished and let it crinkle up again. I had a difficult time sewing my crinkle cotton until I pressed it a bit before sewing.

[Wickedvox]

I'm in Isabella's camp on this. What you can do is wash, dry, hang, lightly spritz with water from a spray bottle, grab the right and left edges and give it a good yank. It'll pull out the extra crinkles, but leave the ones that are supposed to be there. My two cents.