My beautiful, cream-colored fabric? I ruined it. Utterly ruined it.

There were some black marks around the selvedges from being stored in the warehouse, and I always like pre-washing material as close to the time I bought it as I can so I don't have to worry about that later. Accordingly, I popped it in the washing machine last night with some bleach (to take out the black marks, and hopefully tone down that color some). Mom put it in the dryer for me, so I didn't see what it was like then. When I took it out of the dryer this morning... If I ever need something with Fortuny pleats, I'll just use this material. It is beautifully pleated throughout the entire fourteen yards or so of fabric. Plus the width is no longer as tall or taller than I am; it's now about 54" wide. One good thing, the color isn't such a peachy cream as it was.

I think I know exactly what happened, too: I forgot to change the washer setting from warm to cold.

While it's not as ideal as it was before it got washed (I'm now wishing I had taken someone's advice and just bought the whole bolt), I'm still going to use it for my shieldmaiden variation. For the width Holkeboer adds to the sides on the second bliaut pattern, I'll just insert gores. The fabric wrinkles will hide any extra seamlines, I hope.

Mom said that I could always make something Greek or Roman out of it, which I might do at some point. I should have enough yardage left over to make something Greek-inspired if not historically accurate. Maybe an outfit fit for one of the goddesses? That could be fun.