Replies

1. 
   MaryinColorado | Sep 20, 2006 01:11am | #1

   Hi Dotty!  Rayon is my favorite fabric but it is difficult to cut.  Once it has been prewashed, I have not had trouble with shrinkage of the finished product.  I think it must have gotten offgrain or slipped while stitching or something of the sort as it doesn't usually wrinkle.  It may help to hang it on a hanger and just steam the heck out of it.

   I like to use Palmer Pletch fusable interfacing with Rayon, it is expensive but is great stuff.  Does not affect the drape of Rayon and makes it a million times easier to work with. 

   Hope this helps.  Mary

2. 
   Becky-book | Sep 20, 2006 03:59pm | #2

   I used some cheap iron-on interfacing in a rayon dress once... big mistake! the yoke never did lay flat after the first wash! and the yoke was the whole reason I used that pattern!!!

   Try pressing the inside lightly first then again on the right side.

   Try pressing the trouble spots over a 'ham' or sleeve board so that you can work on one small bit at a time to avoid creases in the adjoining fabric.

   OR

   Send it to the cleaners and let them deal with it! LOL

   Becky

1. 
   dotty | Sep 20, 2006 04:57pm | #3

   Thank you both. It was pre-washed so I think slippage was the problem. I've never interfaced a yoke,(any opionions out there on that?) so I don't think the interfacing is exactly the problem. I used silk organza (Sandra Betzina's suggestion?). It's worse in the interfaced parts though because there are 3 layers there. Next time I'll try Mary's interfacing suggestion, because at least the iron on stablizes it a bit.

2. 
   AndreaSews | Sep 20, 2006 08:27pm | #4

   Funny, Becky--I was _just_ thinking of a garment I made of rayon and how I tired of fussing over the ironing board.  Now I do send it to the cleaners.  They handle it, and I never have to know how easy or difficult it was :)  In retrospect, I think the problem I had could have been avoided by matching the pattern/design with a fabric of a more appropriate weight/fluidity.

3. 
   Teaf5 | Sep 21, 2006 03:26am | #5

   There are rayons, and then there are rayons.  Like the little girl with the curl in her forehead, some are just horrible to work with, and even though I would battle them to complete a garment, I never liked wearing them because their bad habits would plague me every time I put them on.

   Nowadays, I either buy rayon on very heavily discounted clearance (so that I can discard or use it for scrap) or buy a quarter yard and prewash it first to find out its true nature before investing any time or energy into making it up.  The ones that come through the prewash well end up being my very favorite garments for years on end--well worth the little extra time up front.

1. 
   dotty | Sep 21, 2006 11:14pm | #6

   Pre washing a small piece of future rayon is an excelent idea. I think I should have known that the fabric was potentially a problem because the tiny chinese characters (which for all I know said something obscene),were printed off grain in places. I thought that the print was so small that it wouldn't be noticable.In retrospect ,if the manufacturer couldn't get it on grain,I'm not suprised I couldn't either.