40s(?) fabric - washing advice?

plousia

plousia

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I found 4 yards of this amazing fabric at the thrift store for the whopping sum of $7 CAD. It looked to me like it might be 40s. I investigated a Pacific Fabrics store in Seattle which has been in business since 1917; however, prior to 1959 they only sold rags and nobody there thought they had produced own-brand fabric up until very recently, and they confirmed that this is not what would have been printed in the selvedge.

I found a bunch of vintage ads on Ebay for a Pacific Fabrics, dated 1941-1951. This company was based in New York and seems like the more likely candidate, as they did produce fabrics. Based on the width (42") I surmise this is late 40s, which is when that width seems to turn up in 40s patterns. Also, the R in a circle mark seems to have been introduced in 1946.

Anyway, now to my question: I know I should wash it before sewing it, but I am a little afraid to as I have had two sad disasters lately with colour bleeding. This is a cotton, not sure the exact type. Would I be safe to handwash it in cold water, or would it be better to just dryclean it after sewing? Not practical, but better than ruining it for sure. Thanks in advance for any advice.
 

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Well I ended up handwashing it and just dunked it and kept an eye on it. It did start to have some bleed, not surprisingly for black dye, so I just swirled it around for a few minutes then rinsed it. No colour transfer to the lighter areas, thankfully.
 
Great find - I would have snapped this up too and have tested it first for dye bleeding before washing the whole thing. I've used 40s cotto fabrics too for sewing and so far had no problem with dye bleeding, though none of them had black in it like yours. One was white with a colorful print and that held up well. One thing I learned from my mom who has 50+ years of experience in sewing: always wash cotton fabrics before sewing, they might just run in a little on the first wash.
 
It's kind of incredible, I mean I just got back into sewing and here I find a dress quantity of 40s fabric. How likely is that? I was also a little worried about shrinking though this will never be anything other than hand washed and line dried.
 
Midge said:
Great find - I would have snapped this up too and have tested it first for dye bleeding before washing the whole thing. I've used 40s cotto fabrics too for sewing and so far had no problem with dye bleeding, though none of them had black in it like yours. One was white with a colorful print and that held up well. One thing I learned from my mom who has 50+ years of experience in sewing: always wash cotton fabrics before sewing, they might just run in a little on the first wash.
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Oh I should ask: how do you test for dye bleeding without washing?
 
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