Please excuse me if this is common knowledge but I'm in an expansive  
(less grumpy) mood. And I would like to hear other thoughts and  
experiences.

I would still wash it to release any stretching or tensions of fibres  
arising from weaving.  Wash normally with detergent (just to be sure  
that it really is clean -[imagine a 1960s TV radiant smile here]), a  
hot temperature and the rinse in cold water to make sure it shrinks  
(combination of fibres relaxing and shortened fabric caused by fibres  
swelling and therefore compacting the weave) as much as it 'needs'.  
Due to moisture regain, one would expect that the fibres will always  
be slightly more swollen than before wetting (any proof?). You are  
aiming for a structurally stable state with no more major tensions  
that could be released after it has been used/applied.

For example. When I was learning fabric printing, we were taught not  
to wash the fabric first (the finish was convenient for the printing  
process), but simply to moisten it by spraying, then immediately  
ironing it dry to pre-shrink it so that that would not happen when  
the water based inks were applied. Some fabrics, cottons, would  
shrink dramatically before your eyes, even causing dramatic local  
distortions between adjoining wet and dry areas. After that  
experience I always washed and ironed fabrics before making clothes  
or furnishings and never again suffered a puckered seam after the  
first wash.

How you let it dry also has an effect. To iron or not to iron?

Back in the old TCC days, Karen Finch would say that we should never  
iron backing/support fabrics because it stretches them, so that in  
damp situations the fibres could relax (shrink) and cause tensions in  
the stitched construction. I'm not so sure that that is significantly  
different than smoothing the just washed fabric out on a smooth  
surface so that it dries perfectly flat, looking as if it has been  
ironed but better (no shine). Does save electricity. The degree of  
tension arising would obviously depend on the individual properties  
of the fibre: more with cotton than with more crystalline silk or  
linen. I guess that high temperature steam ironing may well 'fix'  
fabrics in a slightly stretched state (glass transition temperature  
etc.).

With a fine linen scrim I used for supporting tapestries, I let the  
damp panels dry flat after firmly smoothing out by hand, but not so  
much that they 'stuck' to the surface of the table. This resulted in  
a slight 'crêpey' look - not absolutely ironed flat but with a slight  
bumpy relief. This I considered to be built in extra 'bag' to be  
taken up by stitching and it worked well.

You could probably get the same effect in this way with muslin -  
should that be desirable.


On 22 Oct 2009, at 23:28, diana zlatanovski wrote:

> I am guessing the answer is yes, but I wanted to  
> doublecheck...unbleached and unsized muslin purchased from an  
> archival supplier still needs to be washed before using it with  
> objects, correct?
>
> Thanks,
> Diana