So Then This Happened

I try to pre-wash my fabric and get it neatly into my stash as soon as possible. On Friday, I got my first Patchwork City BOM kit, the rest of the fabric I need for my king sized ninja quilt, and I picked up some other odds and ends. As always, there was some other fabric around here that I hadn't yet pre-washed. So the last couple days have been spent pre-washing and ironing. The washing end is in sight (there's still a healthy pile of ironing left!) and this morning I put in one of the last groups of fabrics, including some Cotton & Steel Viewfinders, some lovely Alison Glass Sun Prints, and some solid purple yardage. Darks. So I threw in a couple color catchers. Then I started up the washer and went about my morning.

When I came back to move the fabric to the dryer I was a bit confused at first. I opened the washer and picked up the top piece of fabric, and three color catchers. Hm. I thought I only put in two. Perhaps there was one in there from the previous load. I started trimming the unraveled edges of the fabric and there was something on it. Crud, looks like a piece of paper or a tag somehow got into this load of fabric... ya know, like how a tissue disintegrates in the washer, little bits of brown on my fabric. :-P I dusted the fat quarter off a bit then threw it into the dryer. Then I picked up the next piece of fabric and it's covered in brown bits, and underneath it were about fifteen color catchers. In that moment I knew what had happened, I WASHED THE ENTIRE BOX OF COLOR CATCHERS! Well, at least none of the fabrics bled. ;-)

A *few* more color catchers than needed.

Now I'm pretty sure when a small cardboard box disintegrates into wet cardboard dust, it results in about a million little brown specks... so yeah, they weren't exactly coming off real easily. So I shook the fabric around and kinda dusted it off with my hand as best I could and start loading it into the dryer. Then I had to babysit the dryer so I could empty the lint trap when it filled up, about every 4 minutes. At least this mostly took care of the problem and a second wash and dry seems to have left all my fabric looking like new again. You non-pre-washers are pointing and laughing now, aren't you?

See that... stuff... that used to be a cardboard box.

In summary, here's my pro tip: Don't put the entire box of Color Catchers in the wash.

19 thoughts on “So Then This Happened

  1. Bo

    I hate it when I leave Kleenex in a pocket and it gunks everything up. Frustrating!! But you did tell a funny story so thank you for the chuckle!!

    Reply
  2. Thanks for the laugh and the warning. It could totally happen to me. I keep my color catchers in the cabinet above the washer, and I can now see the whole thing falling in...

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      The trouble is if you do *not* see them fall in. ;-) Mine were balanced on top of a pile of junk on the dryer. :-/

      Reply
  3. I confess when I saw the blurb and photo in my blog reader I was terrified that you'd had dye run and ruined all your fabric! So I'm glad it was a humorous story instead. Not the same thing, but we have wool dryer balls that we will put a drop or two of essential oil on and my husband once threw the bottle of essential oil in the dryer - that was a smelly load of laundry!

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      I didn't even think of that! It could certainly have been worse! Thanks for visiting. I bet that laundry smelled good for a long time. ;-)

      Reply

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