Color Saver
 

Is there any product that can be used when washing fabric that will prevent it from fading? Thank you!

there is what's called Color Catchers to keep fabric from bleeding so I'm assuming that would also help it from fading also. Look in the launry section at your local store, something similar should be there for you to choose from. Think JoAnne's might have something also but I haven't been in their stores in years.

Woolite makes a detergent that keeps dark colors from fading.

It's my understanding that the Color Catchers "pick up" the loose dye in the washer. I just checked the box and it says it's a "dye catching" sheet.

My sister soaks clothes she expects to fade in salt water. I don't know if it helps, but she's been doing it for years.

bkay

Retayne is one. I can't think of where I used to get it though. online if I remember.

Dharma Trading Company?

Retayne is the product you want to stabilize the colour.
You add it to hot water in the washer, then the fabric.
Agitate to make sure the fabric is fully soaked. Then let it sit.

I just use the washing machine, and let the cycle continue to the end,
after the required time. Then dry in the dryer.

I think you get better results treating your fabrics before sewing than after. Old timey fixatives include salt and vinegar in your wash. Another old time fix is heat -- boiling (in a pot or microwave) but obviously that is with yardage and not finished products. You can also use Rit colorstay, but again, I'd be doing it in my prewash and not in my regular wash.

Color safe "dry" bleach may be better than regular bleach, but it has a hard impact on fabric.

Yep, Dharma is right. thanks!

I made my first real quilt in 1970 and many since. I've never had a quilt fade. It isn't the fabric, but the after treatment. quilts on the window side of a bid will fade, hung quilts can fade. I had a cotton blouse fade in the shoulders and front in a week in Texas sun.

If there was/is something to make fabric colors more permananat the mfgrs are already doing it with chemicals/dyes/fixatives. Not things consumers can lay their hands on.