Rose S.

How many of you have had trouble with batiks bleeding? Please specify if you washed them first or not....and were they name brand batiks. I have a lot of Hoffman...and others that were name brand. I don't normally prewash fabric...and have used a few batiks with not problems at all. Just wondered about everyone else's experiences with them. I have also considered cutting a scrap of each one and testing it in a small cup of water....

Lori S

I use hundreds of yards of batiks every year.. and can tell you there is no guarantee no matter who the manufacture that they will not bleed. Sometimes the bleeding may not occur until the second wash , this happens if there is still a lot of resist remaining in the fabric , and the prewash was done with cold water. Do prewash your batiks with warm water . If its a small amount of fabric .I use the sink and warm water let is soak for about 10 minutes then agitate , rinse and rinse till the water runs to clear. The Hoffman 1895 or "watercolor" batiks are some of the biggest bleeders. You can pretreat using Retayne but the quilt must be washed in cold water or you remove the Retayne.

NikkiLu

I "wash" ALL batiks in my pure white kitchen dish pan and ALMOST ALL OF THEM BLEED. Some more than others. I only buy batiks from quilt shops and not the cheap, poorly woven batiks - I am talking about tightly woven, quality batiks. I do hand wash with just a drop of liquid soap to dislodge any loose dyes. I wash in lukewarm water and rinse in cool water until the water runs clear. I did have to throw away at least two pieces that never did stop bleeding. Looked like an octopus squirting out his ink. It was a bright blue piece of fabric.

toolazy

I prewash everything. For batiks and hand dyes that will be used with lighter fabrics or that I'm just suspicious about, I hand wash in a white sink so I can make sure they stop bleeding at some point. I use the same process as NikkiLu.

NJ Quilter

I bought Hoffman batiks (black/gold); pre-washed in the hottest water my machine allows (which I do with all my fabric). Didn't notice any bleeding. Dried in the dryer. Washed the quilt after it was completed; still no bleeding noticed. Sold the leftover fabric. That person washed and still had bleeding. Guess we just never know

Knitette

My name is ****** and I'm NOT a pre-washer.......

However, I was top stitching a bright orange batik bag handle and looked down at my machine to see some of the dye had come off onto my machine. I'd used the same fabric for the lining and some of the bag panel was very light blue . I carried on and completed the bag and put it in the washer with 3 colour-catcher sheets. The orange faded a little, but didn't bleed on to the other colours.

Still don't pre-wash.

Tashana

I do not pre wash anything and I do not use any of the products to stabilize the color. Have not had any issues yet. That being said, I would hold my breath every time I take my quilt out of the washer I use color catchers and sometimes they get really soaked with color and nasty.

DebraK

I was all my new quilts with synthrapol and have never had a problem.

nhweaver

I pre wash batiks always. Sometimes there is bleeding, I buy quality fabric, and the bleeding is not manufacture dependent.

pocoellie

Batiks are the only fabrics I prewash or if they're pre-cuts I will fast the completed quilt with vinegar or something that will prevent the dyes from staining the quilt.