Are batiks less colorfast?
 

I need a little guidance. Have very little experience with batiks. More than 5 years ago I incorporated a couple into a project and the colors ran like crazy even after a lengthy pre-soak. Are the newer fabrics a little more colorfast and are there some batik fabric lines you trust more than others? Thanks for your input.

As a rule .. I never ever trust a batik not to run/or bleed. I have sewn on hundreds of yards from all the top manufactures. I can tell you the "watercolor " or Hoffman 1895 are just notorious bleeders. I have purchased the Kaufman equivilant of the watercolor... hoping for better ... nope ... still bleed. I do run into a few batiks that have not bleed , but its so unpredictable ... like I said I just don't trust any of them. I have even found that some did not bleed on the first wash... but ran on subsiquient washings... I think there was still some resist that the soap finally removed in the later washings.
Be safe .. pre treat or prewash till the color stops releasing.
Those darkest just rich colors I pretreat with Retayne... as so often prewashing or rinsing till the bleed stops ... you can "process" several times on still get a bit of a bleed. When I purchase those dark rich colors I want it to keep as much as possible... so Retayne
Some of the lighter colors... the amount of color/dye released is not so obvious .. and prewashing/rinsing can be sufficient .
I find it so interesting that some of the colors released.... are not very apparent in the fabric.

I have not had problems with the batiks I've used. I do usually prewash but not always. I don't have very many that are light colored so it is possible that I just haven't noticed as I often do fairly monochromatic color combinations.

Yes the bleed and sometimes never seem to stop bleeding. My solution, when I use Batiks I use them throughout the quilt and then use a dark fabric instead of light. Finally I wash them with 2-3 color catchers for at least 5 times and only with jeans or dark fabric things. I haven't had any staining even when I use lighter Batiks in the pattern but those color catchers are always full of color. Other quilters have told me they use lots more dye when making Batiks.

same here. I haven't had the drastic problems I've read about on this board. I mix a lot of batiks into my quilts. Luck of the draw I guess.

it all depends on the color usually. I have two reddish ones. one bled like it was a butchered pig and the other not a drop. both the same manufacturer. the same with all the colors. but I do notice that the blues and reds usually bleed more than others. purples are a crab shoot. you never know till you get it wet. always check though. I use almost all batiks. (I love the feel of most of them, there are some thicker batiks that I don't like) I am actually working on three quilts right now that are mostly all batiks and out of the nine fabrics in two of the quilts, only three of the fabrics I had to wash a few times to get the bleeding to stop. hope this helps. there is a product that you can get to stop the bleeding. I have two batiks currently that I have to treat with this stuff before I use them in a quilt.

I always .....always hand wash in hot water and then treat with Retayne. It is a lot more work but it is worth it to not ruin a pretty quilt.

Batiks generally are bleeders!

Pre-wash (several times) ... Retayne ... Colour Catchers!!
are your secret weapons.

A reminder ... just because you have pre-washed, does NOT mean you have stopped the bleeding.
Likewise, just because the water appears to be clear, does NOT mean it is not bleeding.
And too, just because another fabric does not get stained from it, does NOT mean it is not bleeding.

I've come to really believe in Colour Catchers ... Dr. Beckmann's are all that we can get here in Canda.