I'm weaving honeycomb structure with 10/2 Perle cotton and rayon chenille - 2,400 yd.per pound.  The rayon is color fast, but I've read that you should only dry clean rayon.  I'd really like to wet wash the fabric for fulling after taking it off the loom, but I don't want to ruin it after putting in so much work.  Does anybody know if it would be OK to wet wash rayon just once for finishing?

Comments

Mon, 07/20/2015 - 03:37

laurafry

rayon doesn't actually 'full' but yes, you can wet finish rayon.  Su Butler is the expert and her book Understanding Rayon Chenille is available from her in digital format.  

Cheers

laura

Mon, 07/20/2015 - 05:03

Dena (not verified)

The thing to be careful about with rayon chenille is that it will worm out of the fabric if there is any instability (as in, long floats or sleezy weave structure).  I weave rayon chenille in production and have always given my fabrics a hard wet finish.  Full wash cycle (gentle or by hand) and a hard dry cycle (an hour and a quarter in the machine, until bone dry).  This gets the chenille to fluff up beautifully and gives the fabric a lovely soft feel and beautiful drape.  In order to do this, however, you need to have a secure fabric and make sure that your edge finishing is very stable.

Mon, 07/20/2015 - 15:54

Steve Singery

Thanks, LauraFry.  Thanks, Dena.  I'll give it a try.