'Prewashed' labels for your fabric stash - free printable

How many times do you pull fabric out of your stash and ask yourself, “Has this been prewashed?”  Me, ever single time.  Whenever I buy fabric, I have good intentions of prewashing it all and getting all ready to sew.  And sometimes I do.  But mostly I don’t.   And so I find myself asking “Has this been prewashed?” just about every time I start a sewing project.

I did that last week as I was pulling some knit fabric out to make a (hopefully) wearable muslin for a shift dress.  I couldn’t remember, so of course that meant I had to go ahead and wash the fabric.  By the time I had it washed and dried and ready to go, I had burned an hour and a half of my sewing time.

BUT I didn’t totally the waste the time the fabric was washing!  I went to my computer and created these printable labels so I can always know whether my fabric has been prewashed or not.  I’ve got a link to download them at the bottom of this post.

The idea is this – every time I prewash fabric, before I fold it up I’ll staple this tag around one of the edges.  It says “Prewashed and ready to use” so there’s no question about whether my fabric is ready to go.  I also added a space for notes so I could write fabric type and amount.

My initial design had tall skinny tags but I realized that would put a staple – and potentially a snag – further out into the yardage than I’d prefer.  My final design uses a short, wide rectangle so the staple is right up next to the edge of the fabric.

The tag is easily visible on the edge of my fabric so I can quickly tell if the fabric is ready to be used.

Download the printable here: ‘Prewashed’ printable fabric labels

One very important thing to keep in mind:  I recommend printing these on a laser printer if at all possible.  Inkjet ink can run if it gets wet, which could ruin your fabric!  If you don’t have a laser printer at your house, you could print it on an inkjet and take it down to the copy shop to make photocopies.