Originally Posted by alageeps
I would not add any chemical to my material to retain the colors. Let them age as they would, I always wash in cold water and use the color catcher to pick up any dyes..
Retayne is for setting unset dyes; it does not prevent fabric dyes from aging normally. Basically Retayne is used on "bleeder" fabrics to prevent the dye from bleeding all over the other fabrics in a quilt. Heavy bleeding fabrics are rare, thank goodness, but if you happen to include one in a quilt then cold water and color catchers may well not be enough to prevent damage to the quilt. Retayne is used only on individual fabrics before they are put into a quilt; it should never be used on a finished quilt, as it would permanently set any bleeds.
Many chemicals are used to set dyes into fabrics. It's just that sometimes factories make mistakes. Retayne offers the quilter a home opportunity to set dyes into a fabric when the factory has not done it correctly.