Ghostrider, thanks for commenting upon the vinegar and salt methods. We can never assume that the status quo will always be the same for fabric manufacturing. I have great luck with color catchers with regular laundry...never had a mishap...on occasion I may only have several colored items in with lighter fabrics. Most of the time I have enough laundry to have enough for a white, color and dark load. However, for today's quilting fabrics I tend to lean towards Retayne for washing before cutting and piecing and Synthrapol for the post-completion wash.
Originally Posted by
ghostrider
The above link is bad, Try this instead.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/m...view/index.htm
I don't use color catchers; waste of money as far as I'm concerned, invented so people could wash all their colors together and not bother separating them. I'm not in that much of a hurry with regular laundry and I prewash all quilting fabrics (like colors together and never with regular laundry) until any excess dyes are gone. If they still bleed after two washes, they get treated with Retayne...end of problem.
I'm very surprised to hear Tashana's red sheets are still bleeding after being washed twice a week every week for 10 years! That has to be some kind of record.
Vinegar has NO effect on today's dyes. It will NOT set colors used to dye cotton. Salt will not do anything either.