Note to self: pre-wash your fabric 🤦🏻‍♀️

Did a bunch of test applique pieces: 

 washed them: 

 and found out that the main fabric shrinks a bunch. 

4" squares before:

And after:

Realized that since the fiber contents of the fabric and the applique are different, I should probably pre-wash the fabrics before doing the applique. Too bad I already cut out the pattern pieces. 

So now I'm overcasting the edges of all the pattern pieces so I can pre-wash them: 

Good thing my sewing machine has a stitch for that: