Pre-shrinking fabric

Even though the banner is not meant to be washable, you can't be too careful - it's always possible that an accident might happen one day and it could get damp. So, it's best that all the fabric is pre-shrunk. If it hadn't been, and if did get damp, then the different fabrics could shrink different amouts, leading to all sorts of problems.

The linen will be easy, as that can just go in the washing machine, but I'm not happy doing that with the velvet. It's cotton, but even so - I don't want to take chances. So I'm pre-shrinking it using steam.

The velvet is laid on an ironing pad, wrong side up. The 'this way up' arrows pinned on are exactly that, by the way; I want to make sure I always have the pile going in the same direction.

Using a steam iron, I then steamed the fabric a bit at a time, until it was damp. The pad isn't big enough to do it all at once, so I had to steam it in sections, but I waited until the steamed area was completely dry before moving the fabric.

In case you were wondering, yes I tested it on a scrap first! I didn't think it would water mark, and it didn't, but there's no harm in being careful.