pennyhal2

Good idea; I'll give it a try.

SueZQ from MN

I used to do cross stitch designs on sweat shirts and baby blankets and always soaked the finished items in a vinegar/water beth to set the colors. I never had a bleed even with red thread onto a white item. The dyes used might be different in fabric than they are in embroidery thread, so the results might not be the same, but it could be worth a try before fabric is discarded.

Christine-

Retayne sets dyes. Synthrapol is what you need to use when fabric in a finished quilt has bled onto another fabric. Synthrapol removes fugitive or loose dyes.

Christine-

There is a good conversation about when to use Retayne and Synthrapol here on the Quilting Board. Here's the link to it

QuiltE

My suggestion to her for Retayne was just that ... to set the dyes in the fabric that was crocking.

IOW to prevent any staining occurring.

Onebyone

I starch and iron all my fabric and if one bleeds I don't use it. I don't spend time and money trying to stop the bleed either. I haven't had any bleed in a long time because I won't buy the brand that bled in that color again.

Peckish

I have always been very successful fixing bleeds using Vicki Welsh's method. She is a hand-dyer and quilter, and did a ton of research and experimenting to find the best, most reliable way of permanently fixing dye in fabric. If you search for "Save My Bleeding Quilt" you will find the pdf she generously wrote up for all quilters, free to use. Essentially she says use plenty of water, do not crowd the fabric, and it needs to be very hot 140°F, add a tablespoon of Dawn dish soap and let it soak overnight.

Having said that, I will say that there was one fabric I could NOT get "fixed". I processed it four times using Vicki's method and it was still bleeding. I finally figured out why - it was a saturated dark green DIGITAL print. The manufacturers of digital prints claim their fabrics are superior because the inks don't fade, they can print smaller batches, they can print on demand, blah blah blah. But ask them about bleeding, or runs (where the thread spins and shows the white backside, which looks like a run) and suddenly they don't know what you're talking about, they've never heard of such issues. I've about had it. I'm so fed up with these crappy digital prints, I'm happy to go back to my fat stash of conventionally printed fabrics and use them instead.