Retayne Questions
 

Some questions for Retayne users:

1. Do you wash all your "susceptible to bleeding" fabrics in Retayne?

2. What is your determination as to "susceptible to bleeding"? I know red would be a good choice.

3. Can you mix colors in one washing?

Thanks in advance!

I prewash everything, usually with a color catcher to see if I have a bleeder in the bunch. I wash like colors togethers and don't mix colors. But I have done several different reds in one load or several different blues. If the color catcher is saturated with color I will test each fabric in the load by putting a small snippet in a white dish with hot hot water and let it sit to see if any color leeches out. By saturated with color, I mean vibrant. If I have washed a load of reds and the catcher comes out light pink I do not treat. If the fabric does not leach out additional color in the white dish test, I dry it, iron it and put it in stash for use. If it does bleed I treat with retayne. Definitely do not mix colors when using retayne because you could end up with dye release from one color to another so you will end up with a fabric that may be "muddy" from another color and the retayne will set it. I have had batiks be the worst offenders but often it ends up just being excess dye and when I do the bleed test I get no additional bleed from the fabric. You must use very hot water with retayne and future washes must be in cold water. Follow the directions on the bottle.

Thank you feline fanatic for sharing your process - I do the 1st step (color catchers) but now will add the 'white dish test' and retayne if necessary. Very helpful advice :)

I had an experience just this week with a yardage of purple that I want to use as sashing with cross-stitched blocks. I put it in hot water and, yes, it bled. So it went through several washings, still showing bleeding. Since I didn't have other product on hand, I tried the salt and vinegar treatment and gave up, finally putting it into the dryer. What I now have is a yardage of purple that I don't see evidence of what I think was a secondary design that essentially washed away! Is this possible that the purple yardage was put through a second process that didn't color set?

I only wash dark batiks. If it is still bleeding after a few hot water washes, then I use retayne. illinois, it sounds like it covered up the design by bleeding into it. That's a bummer, I have had designs weaken the same way. But at least purple is a great color.

According to a dye professional at the local art center here, Synthrapol removes excess dye from fabrics, not Retayne. [h=1][/h]

that's great info. Thanks! Does Retayne have a shelf life? I've had a bottle for several years and only used it on a small project. I have about half a bottle left.

Now that I'm thoroughly confused:

http://www.newpieces.com/weblog/?p=3398

Me, again ....... then I found this. There's also a video ....

http://mansewing.com/wp-content/uplo...synthrapol.pdf