Pre wash batting???

[Little House Creations]

My customer wants to know if she should pre - wash the batting for a flannel quilt (flannels have been prewashed). I would say no, but thought I'd ask opinions here. Her batting choices are:

1- Arctic Cotton Blend (88% cotton fibre, 12% non-woven polypropylene reinforcement)

on the tag it says "no pre-wash required"

2- Warm and Natural (looks like it is 87.5% and 12.5% like above)

3- The Tuscany Collection (100% bleached cotton said to shrink 3-5%)

Any advice would be appreciated - thanks

[Quilting Heidi]

Bev I use mostly QD and never pre-wash. I prewash all my fabric and have never had a problem with the batting shrinking too much.

[Primitive1]

I've never pre-washed batting either...can only imagine the lint!

[ffq-lar]

Treating a batting for shrinkage before using it is tricky--you can ruin it easily with some rough handling. So, depending on the final look she wants for the quilt, her decision should be based on using some kind of batting without pre-treating it. Cotton will shrink up, blends not as much and of course the more poly the less shrinkage. Full poly will be absolutely stable. Her pre-washed flannel will continue to shrink after laundering so with 100% cotton she will end up with that vintage scrinkled look. That's a technical term....

Most batting instructions for pre-shrinking involve fully wetting the batting and laying it out to dry. I don't have the room or the time for that, so if she opts for this, have her do the job herself. I also wonder if this process without the application of heat does anything to the batting!