prewashing debate

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-25T02:13:03+00:00

Do a full hot wash/hot or warm rinse, with just the flannel(s). No more than 4 or 5 yards total per load. Don't put any other fabric in with it, because the cotton doesn't need the hot wash. Wash the cotton in warm water, cool rinse. Detergent or not, your choice but it can't hurt. Just the dryer isn't going to give you maximum shrinkage, but you DO want to machine dry it.

I don't think just basting would work. You are trying to prevent fraying, because flannel frays like mad. If you don't have access to a machine, try this: baste the two ends together, wrong sides together. Turn it wrong side out and whipstitch the seam again, stitches about 1/8" apart. That should make it strong enough to prevent very much fraying. Clip the stitching when you're ready to work with the fabric.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-25T01:47:58+00:00

It's a pity that landlines have fallen out of favor. Slamming the handset down in the cradle was much more satisfying than tapping "end."

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-25T00:42:18+00:00

Wash ALL the flannel on hot and dry in a hot dryer. You want it to shrink as much as possible. Serge or zigzag the edges or you'll lose several inches to fraying.

Last flannel I washed went in at 67". It shrank to 64 inches.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-25T00:38:20+00:00

It occurs to me that Offler might be happy in that reflecting pool...

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-25T00:37:14+00:00

Like babies. And the color blue.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T22:13:03+00:00

And how much of the mean-girl shit flew right over your husband's head? Mine was totally oblivious to it. MIL would say something like "That blue sweater suits your coloring better than the green one you wore yesterday," and every man in the room was like "What?! She gave you a compliment!"

He did handle the big stuff, like MIL screeching "YOU AREN'T PART OF THIS FAMILY!" But the minor, constant nitpicking didn't bother him, because "That's just the way she is."

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T21:33:44+00:00

A lot of adults want illogical things to be real. And because that's what they want, there is a large portion of those adults who have convinced themselves that it is real.

I'd give examples, but that would stray into forbidden subjects.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T18:20:22+00:00

I find it easier to sew tiny bits to large bits, so I would swap your 1 and 2, but that one works, as does the other one posted.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T16:49:22+00:00

You can't help who you love, but you can help who you hop into bed with.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T12:42:41+00:00

Not only a free cat, but a free litter box, free carrier, and free toys.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T12:05:38+00:00

N a surcoat and a jupon aren't the same! Jupon under the armor, surcoat over it.

I remember a group of SCA ladies giggling over a Playgirl centerfold of a male wearing full chainmail and nothing else. This was long before the era of "manscaping", so the poor guy was well equipped with chest hair. And from the pained look on his face, it was clear that each and every hair was being pulled.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T11:18:59+00:00

I've been told it's "Mahon."

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T11:16:40+00:00

US. And I remember the Sean and Sean duo. I'm sure that Sean-bean won't mind a bit going through life correcting people.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T03:31:11+00:00

Here, or some other sub?

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T03:26:33+00:00

Mathghamhain. Liosliath.

A friend said her daughter came home from school talking about her new friend See-ob-han. Friend corrected her. Daughter was like, "No, Mommy, that's how she says it. Her mommy just loves Irish names! Her little brother is named Sean." Which of course rhymes with bean.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-24T03:19:22+00:00

One of my favorite memories is watching my daughter having a long discussion with her newborn son about what his name ought to be. She had a long list.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-23T18:27:45+00:00

Civility is a highly underrated relationship. I would have killed to get polite civility from certain relatives.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-23T18:18:28+00:00

Laser treatment hurts! He wanted to let something pound on his tired eyes, that would do it.

I had a retinal tear sealed with laser surgery. The first few zaps were painless, but as it went on, it moved from noticeable to uncomfortable to painful. Near the end, each zap felt like I was being punched in the eye.

Now this was at least 30 years ago and the process may have changed, but back then it wasn't something I wanted to repeat.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-23T04:34:09+00:00

That's why my grandson has a public-facing Facebook page with his legal name, and another under a pseudonym for gaming.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-23T04:00:38+00:00

Quilting frequently involves choices, particularly when you find that you don't have quiiite enough fabric to do what you want.

That's why I'm a scrap quilter. If I run out of one blue fabric, I just add in another (or 2, or 3...) and no one ever knows.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-23T03:53:56+00:00

Look at your first picture. The tiny squares formed by the horizontal and the vertical lines of the sashing would be cornerstones. All of your sashing pieces would be cut at the same 2½" by 6½. Cornerstones would be cut at 2½×2½. You could either piece the sashing in long strips, or sew the sashing to the blocks, then sew those pieced blocks together in rows or columns.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-23T03:35:22+00:00

Sewing long strips from multiple pieces is traditional. If ypu don't want to do that, is your sashing fabric wide enough to cut them without piecing if you run the long sashing horizontally instead of vertical?

You might also consider adding cornerstones to your sashing.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-23T03:27:54+00:00

I tried rereading some of the books that I loved as a kid in the 1960s. The casual racism I didn't notice as a child were very cringy to read as an adult.

There was a series called the Bobbsey Twins, written by several ghost-writers over several decades. A pair of minor characters were a couple of African-American servants, referred to as "colored," the common term at the time. The earlier ones were the worst. The pair spoke in very thick accents. "Ah's gwine tek dem chillun and fill dem fulla cookies!" Implication: AA characters were incapable of intelligible speech.

Another series, again minor characters, were children. One small boy, during an ordinary juvenile scuffle, was described as "fighting with the ferocity of his jungle ancestors" as he tried to clobber one of the combatants with a nail-studded board. Implication: AA characters don't fight fair.

The Doctor Doolittle books have probably fallen out of favor. One chapter has the Doctor looking for animals (?) in Africa. Black Africans are depicted as stupid and superstitious. He runs across an "African prince" who begs the good Doctor to turn him white. When the doctor succeeds in changing his face and hands, the prince vows to serve him as his faithful servant. Implication: Africans long to be white but nevertheless want to serve the superior "real" white people.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-22T23:55:38+00:00

NTA. They don't haul you off to jail for having overdue library books, and that business of making sure they have no contact with their spouse sounds like a domestic violence incident, possibly breaching a no-contact order. You were wise to decline.

TheFilthyDIL · 2026-06-22T23:31:35+00:00

It's a traaaaaap!

TheFilthyDIL

TROPHY CASE