Originally Posted by Aully
I tryed the Retayne on 28 fq's hand dyes, it did not work at all they bled all over my yardage and made it pepto pink. I am so sad the yardage did not bled at all just the hand dyes. The yardage was a robert Kaufman red fabric with white reindeer on it it is pepto pink now. :(
I am really sorry about your experience, but I am wondering if you misunderstood how to use the Retayne. Retayne should have been used on the hand-dyes by themselves, and the hand-dyes should have been re-tested for colorfastness before being combined with the yardage. Retayne should never be used on a finished quilt (or with a combination of fabrics) because it will permanently set any bleeds.
It sounds as if whoever did the hand-dyed FQs did not set the dyes properly and/or skimped on the rinsing. Correctly setting the dyes means that as much dye as the fibers can absorb is set permanently into the fabric. With hand dyes, there may be a lot more dye in the fabric than the fibers can possibly absorb; that's why rinsing at the end is a critical step. Hand dyes (which have been properly set) should be rinsed until there is no more bleeding of color (excess dye). Excess dye is just as bad as unset dye in terms of coloring other fabrics.
Synthrapol is what I use for the first washing of a quilt. It performs a different task than Retayne. Synthrapol *prevents* loose dye from being set into other fabrics. It cannot handle horrible bleeds, but it is really good about preventing minor bleeds from discoloring other fabrics. Basically it works on keeping unset dye particles suspended in the water so they are rinsed away.