Sewing Tip - Test fabric for wool content with bleach soak

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Test fabric for wool content with bleach soak (Tip/Technique)

Viewed 5111 times

Review rated Helpful by 1 people Very Helpful by 25 people

Posted by:

redsquid


	About redsquid
	CA USA
	Member since: 1/23/06
	Reviews written: 58
	Sewing skills:Intermediate
	Favored by: 23 people
	tips added: 7
	Bio: more...

Posted on:

4/27/06 7:33 AM

Current Tags : test fabric content wool test

There are various ways to test for wool content. If you burn it, you can smell burning hair and it looks like burning hair, for example, but I like to know how much wool there is.

If you buy mystery flatfold fabric like I do, and you want to confirm amount of wool content, cut off a swatch and cover it in bleach in a small container. Thinner fabrics take a couple of hours, allow more time for a coating.

You'll see wool "dissovling" in a chemical reaction. The fiber remaining in the bleach is not wool.

You may want to avoid selvedge as it can be woven with non-wool stabilzer fibers and so it won't give you accurate feedback on content.

This has saved me from dissappointment a few times when I wanted a tailored garment and wanted to work with wool, and I found while my fabric looked wooly and felt wooly to the touch, it had minimal wool content and wasn't suitable for my pattern.

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Reader Comments
MaryBeth	4/27/06	I can vouch, this is a great tip and can save lots of time and puzzlements. What I hadn't counted for in my wool puzzlements was a possible "coating" of something on the fabric. Hmmmmmm, explains a few things!
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AndreaP	4/28/06	Great tip! I have a few mystery fabrics that I will test this way.
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nitwit	4/28/06	Thanks for the great tip. I, too, have some mystery stuff in my stash. One day I MAY learn to label things when I buy them.
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Karla Kizer	4/29/06	What an interesting tip. Thank you! And now, the question....do I really want to know, or am I happier laboring under the illusion that it's wool? BTW - any idea how lycra reacts to bleach? I have some Lycra/wool/mystery fabric stuff.....
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marylynn	4/29/06	The burn test is most usefule for single content fabrics. I am most grateful to get this option for blends. Thank you very much. I buy a lot of fabric in the Garment District and on eBay and frquently there is no fiber statement available. This will really help.
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MarilynB	4/29/06	I have never heard of this tip, only the burn test. What a great idea. Thanks.
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priscilla	4/30/06	What a great tip. Now I can go off and test my fabric stash, I may need a gallon of bleach :O)
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Danielle	5/28/06	Never heard of this! Will definitely use the tip!! Thanks!!
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Rika	10/4/06	informative. what I was looking for.
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MelissaB in WA	12/20/07	Very helpful tip - thanks for posting this!
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lace	12/26/07	This is very helpful to me. Thank you for the tip.
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adventice	11/15/09	redsquid, thank you very much for a great tip how to test whether the wool is wool! Now I know that I have bought winter shoes for my little daughter with the REAL wool lining. I am content.
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