Great Tip for Jelly Rolls and Honey Buns: Lint Control

We are all familiar with Jelly Rolls and Honeybuns, right? If you are not, both are popular pre-cuts offered by fabric companies.  They are super convenient, and there are loads of books and patterns out there with wonderful ideas on how to use them. Pre-cuts are fabrics that are part of a complete designer collection that are cut into specific shapes.  If you buy a pre-cut, you get every piece in the collection, in a particular size package.  Charm packs are 5 inch squares.  Layer cakes are 10 inch squares. Jelly rolls are 2 1/2 inch by 42 inch strips.  Honeybuns are 1 1/2 inch by 42 inch strips.  The edges are pinked, not straight cut.

Which leads us to the main problem with pre-cuts:  the lint issue. Once you take them out of their protective plastic wrapping, the lint from the pinked edges gets everywhere. Every.Where.

I am a big fan of the Moda Fabrics website/blogsite.  You will find great ideas, sew-alongs, free patterns and tons more.  If you don't know it, you really should check it out. One of the more recent ideas shared on their blog was a tip from Moda designer Betsy Chutchian.  Here is her technique for reducing the lint issue. It is in an article about whether or not to pre-wash jelly rolls and honeybuns (no, don't do it, is what I say).

What she does is unwrap the roll and toss it in the clothes dryer on high for about 8 minutes. Stop the dryer, clean out the lint filter and do it again two more times, stopping after 8 minutes and cleaning the lint filter.  There will be a lot of lint.

You would think they would come out in a snarly tangled mess (which they would if you actually washed them). The dryer just kind of fluffs them up and they are not tangled at all.  And the lint has come off.

I got this amount of lint, three times, once for each 8 minute drying cycle.

This is what you are left with.  The heat of the dryer shrinks the length of the strip a tiny bit, maybe a half-inch or so.  But the 1 1/2" width was not affected at all. The lint is gone.  There is a frayed thread or two along the strip, but it doesn't bother me nearly as much as the annoyance of that lint getting everywhere.

And do you know what?  I didn't even need to iron them!  They came out smooth and wrinkle-free.  Now, I wouldn't leave them sit in the dryer after the cycle ended.  I removed them immediately when the dryer stopped.

I think it's a great tip and will do it again when I use jelly rolls and honeybuns!

Comments

[Melanie]

I always run a lint roller over the roll before I untie the roll and helps really well!

[Mary Kastner]

WHat a great idea! Thanks for sharing! Have a great day.

Mary

[Donna]

Thanks for sharing the link and the great idea. I'll definitely have to try it.

[Sharon]

Wow, thanks for passing this along, Nicole. Even the lint roller doesn’t get all the lint from the precuts, so I am happy to have another solution and give it a try.

[Jan]

Great suggestion! 👍 The lint is so annoying! And, the lint roller helps, but not like this. Stay well!

[Kell]

Thanks for the great tip! Looking forward to unrolling a jelly roll now

[Ina]

well, dang! I learned another new thing from your blog. thanks for the tip and happy sewing....

[Lisa Vancor]

Thanks for a great idea for de-linting
appreciate it a lot

[Anita]

Wow! What an awesome idea! I would've thought they'd have shriveled up into a tangled mess. Will need to try that out!

[dee]

I'm surprised you didn't end up with a rats nest. I wonder if you could get all that lint with a tumble without the heat

[CarlaHR]

Thanks so much for sharing that great tip, heading to the dryer with my jelly roll as soon as I post this. Have a lovely safe day.

[yvonne bowe]

Thanks for the great tip!!

[Christi]

I found it shrinks too much on high heat and I didn't like the raveling. I just bang them a lot on the table and hit it with a lint brush.