jimerickson Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 I've gotten tired of quilting quilts with wrinkles and creases in the fabric, and wrinkled batting. A while back I bought a Rowenta steamer thinking I could easily steam them out. Nope! It didn't work. So I just lived with the wrinkles. I recently had a very attractive quilt with a plain (that mean no print) black back. Since the quilt had been mailed to me from TN, the back was badly wrinkled. I decided I'd had enough and decided to built myself an ironing board for pressing backs. I bought the lumber, devised a nice system for attaching it to the rollers, and asked my wife what I should cover it with. She said "why don't you try some of that wrinkle release stuff that you spray on fabric before you bother with the board". And I said "what stuff"? She explained that she had seen such a product, never used it, but knew it existed. So we went to our local Dollar General, looking for it. Sure enough we found a product called Wrinkle Releaser under DG's lable. Guess what. I hung the back over Zelda's rails and began spritzing the wrinkles and creases. They kind of "fell" out. Whatever the stuff is, it makes fabric quite limp and you simply smooth out the wrinkle with your hand or by pulling the fabric tight. It took maybe 10 minutes for me to remove all the wrinkles from that back -I had to spritz some spots more than once to get the crease completely out. I tried it today on part of a top I was quilting. There was a crease in some white fabric, and it just wasn't quilting out. a little spritz and the crease is gone. Now I assumed all women who do laundry and pressing knew all about this stuff, and since I don't do either, I was the only one who didn't know about it. Not so! We were discussing -actually the ladies were, not me- pressing backs, so I asked the ladies in our weekly sewing group if they had ever used it. No one knew anything about it. Since I had bought some for our studio and had it on hand I did a demo. I had another back that was modestly wrinkled. I spread it out over the rollers of the Gammill at our studio, had them watch, and went about spritzing the back. They couldn't believe their eyes as the wrinkles "fell" out. The demo was aided by a nice side lighting so you really could see it work. They were amazed, and vowed they would never press another back. One of my peeves is creased batting. I avoid packaged batting because it is badly wrinkled. I tried a couple of times to tumble the wrinkles out, and tried the Roventa steamer, but without success. I happened to have some Hobbs black batting off a roll that had a nasty crease in one corner. I could have pulled and probably pinned it out when I began quilting, but I decided to try Wrinkle Releaser on it. I had to spritz the crease pretty hard, and the batting got quite moist before the crease released, but it did come out. I did have to let it dry a good while before I felt safe to begin quilting. What happened to that nice ironing board I built you ask? Well, It's laying under Zelda. Never covered, never used. Give some thought to getting yourself some Wrinkle Releaser, see if it works your you. I think it's about a quart, and cost about $3. I'm sure other labels have the same or similar product, so I don't think you have to buy it from Dollar General. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamu Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 Do you know if it leaves any sort of residue possibly causing discoloration? does it launder out totally? and is there any chance of bleeding colors because of getting the fabric damp? sounds like it might be a good thing to have but these questions popped up when I was reading your post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracyv Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 I drape the quilt backing over the rollers of my machine, and spritz the backing with distilled water. Use a cheap Wal-Mart spray bottle, and concentrate on the tough wrinkles. Let it sit about 15 minutes, and magically pretty much all but the very toughest wrinkles are gone. (sometimes you can also see the backing tighten up ever so slightly) Doesn't leave spots or residue, and it is even cheaper than the wrinkle remover. I too hate to iron!! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenscratch Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 Jim, great fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimerickson Posted December 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 Laura: In my experience, which is quite limited, it has left no residue, and no discoloration. Haven't washed anything I've used it on, so I don't know about laundering out. The label claims "Safe on virtually all fabrics. On fabrics that may water spot (such as silk or rayon,) test a hidden area before using," It does have a fragrance. Nice to my nose, but people who don't like fragrance might be put off. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie H Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 I have a spritzer bottle in my rolling cart next to my longarm. If I receive a batting (EDITED: This word should be BACKING, not batting) that has wrinkles or strong creases, I lightly mist those as I'm loading it up and the wrinkles and creases disappear. Tumbling the batting in the dryer (lucky for me my dryer is in the laundry room next to the garage) has worked for me to get the creases out. So far I haven't run into a stubborn batting (crossing fingers!) Just be careful with the cottons as they will shrink a bit if you leave them in there too long. Usually I will throw a packaged batt in the dryer while I load the backer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busy Quilting Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 I Spritz all my backing with clean rain water as I roll them onto the frame. No ironing in this studio! It also helps to "shrink" some of the coarser backings and softens the batiks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quilting Heidi Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 I always spritz the backers, lay over my rails overnight or for an hour or so and then roll, magic. You can use just plain water or sizing. I haven't ironed a back is years! Usually I take out the next backer when I finish a quilt and then it is ready for me to load the next day. If for some strange reason I'm going to load that day I just lay it out over the other quilt the night before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie H Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Have you ever seen that show "The Carbonaro Effect?" The guy is pretty funny with the way he makes people think the impossible has just happened. We watched it for a while but it's kinda lame if you watch too many of them. I have a quilt top of my own that I'm not going to press until I get ready to load it. It would be great if there was some magic spray that I could spray on all the seams, put it in a bag and PRESTO, perfectly pressed seams going in all the right directions. I bet the Carbonaro guy could sell loads that kind of magic spray! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancingraisin Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 I understand that many, if not all, wrinkle releasing sprays are a dilute mixture of fabric softener and water. So the question is whether anything in fabric softener would be harmful in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiltedsunflower Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Does this work on all fabrics, or just cottons? I just made some new altar cloths for church (all 100% linen) and almost impossible to get all the wrinkles out. I ironed as hot as I could for as long as I could, but they wrinkled again in transit. I hadn't thought about spritzing them - hanging on the altar. I might give that a try! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscott2611 Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 I used that spraying with water and laying over my long arm rails overnight for my latest backing and it worked like a charm. Thank you Thank you Thank you I so hate to iron large backs and now I won't have to. Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercedes Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 Just wondering, has anyone had any issues with spraying with water and have the colors bleed onto your leaders - some people don't prewash their fabrics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quilting Heidi Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 Just wondering, has anyone had any issues with spraying with water and have the colors bleed onto your leaders - some people don't prewash their fabrics. Mercedes I've never had that problem. I don't really soak the fabric, just a light spritz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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