Jeanette Frantz

Several years ago, I encountered the problem of fabric dyes "bleeding like a stuck hog." Fortunately, I had a mentor who advised me to test the fabric BEFORE cutting, which I did. The following is my experience and my remedy.

This writer ran into the problem of a red fabric being used for a border -- it was bleeding rivers, and the borders were to go on a WHITE background whole-cloth embroidered quilt. A cousin, who had a quilt shop in Oklahoma cautioned me to check out the red fabric. This writer cut a half-inch wide by 6 inch piece and put it into the hottest tap water available, and it bled. It actually turned a white paper towel bright pink. I have attached a photo of liquid from a bleeding fabric together with white paper towels turned pink by “fabric bleeding”. My cousin had suggested using a dye fixative to "set" the dye in the red. A search throughout this whole town resulted in no finds, despite going into every retail dry goods stores in town, even JoAnn's, . An internet search located Rit Laundry Treatment.

The bleeding problem occurs because the dyes which are used today are not organic dyes, they're chemical. Therefore, vinegar won't work (tried it with 2 gallons of vinegar-- time could have been better spent pouring it down the drain). Epsom salts also does not work -- tried that, too.

An internet search for a "dye fixative" revealed Rit Dye, and found their product, called Rit Laundry Treatment with a description "Dye Fixative", which was ordered online. Three 8 ounce bottles including shipping, cost less than $20,. The red fabric for borders was treated according to instructions on the bottle. After it went through the dryer, the fabric was tested again -- No Bleeding Whatsoever. This writer has No financial interest in, nor any ownership interest whatsoever in either Rit Dye or its distributor, Phoenix Brands, but the product works.

This writer advocates treating your fabrics for quilts (vibrant colors, i.e., red, orange, purple, deep blues, etc.), whether you use the Rit product or whether you use Retayne. The work involved in a queen sized quilt (a wedding gift), not to mention the investment in materials, truly warrants taking the time and making the effort to keep the quilt you’ve made beautiful for decades. Test the fabrics you buy Before You Cut It, no matter where you obtain the fabric. A simple test is cut a ½” wide by 6” long strip. Place it in a glass of your hottest tap water. Then, either dip a white paper towel in the glass of water, or place the wet fabric on a white paper towel. If it bleeds, you know you must treat it or you may end up with a disaster.

Fabrics do shrink, so yes, do prewash everything, including the backing fabric, because if it's going to shrink (and cotton will shrink) it’s much better for the fabric to do it's shrinking BEFORE cutting out your quilt.

This writer is working on a very large quilt to be used as a bed spread. The quilt is a log cabin pattern, in shades of red and white tone-on-tone, and YES, everything in this quilt has been treated for prevention of bleeding, and dried in the dryer to eliminate shrinkage problems. Still Discretion Is The Better Part Of Valor so this quilt will be washed with new color catchers every time it’s washed. It's huge -- it has or will have about 27 yards of fabric in the quilt top only. Don’t risk ruining your quilts because the fabric bleeds. Not all fabric will bleed, but if it does, your quilt can be totally ruined; therefore, test every fabric you use. If it bleeds, treat it Before You Cut. If you wait until your quilt top is assembled, washing may ruin your top.

Jeanette