Batiks...
 

How many of you have had trouble with batiks bleeding? Please specify if you washed them first or not....and were they name brand batiks. I have a lot of Hoffman...and others that were name brand. I don't normally prewash fabric...and have used a few batiks with not problems at all. Just wondered about everyone else's experiences with them. I have also considered cutting a scrap of each one and testing it in a small cup of water....

I use hundreds of yards of batiks every year.. and can tell you there is no guarantee no matter who the manufacture that they will not bleed. Sometimes the bleeding may not occur until the second wash , this happens if there is still a lot of resist remaining in the fabric , and the prewash was done with cold water. Do prewash your batiks with warm water . If its a small amount of fabric .I use the sink and warm water let is soak for about 10 minutes then agitate , rinse and rinse till the water runs to clear. The Hoffman 1895 or "watercolor" batiks are some of the biggest bleeders. You can pretreat using Retayne but the quilt must be washed in cold water or you remove the Retayne.

I "wash" ALL batiks in my pure white kitchen dish pan and ALMOST ALL OF THEM BLEED. Some more than others. I only buy batiks from quilt shops and not the cheap, poorly woven batiks - I am talking about tightly woven, quality batiks. I do hand wash with just a drop of liquid soap to dislodge any loose dyes. I wash in lukewarm water and rinse in cool water until the water runs clear. I did have to throw away at least two pieces that never did stop bleeding. Looked like an octopus squirting out his ink. It was a bright blue piece of fabric.

I prewash everything. For batiks and hand dyes that will be used with lighter fabrics or that I'm just suspicious about, I hand wash in a white sink so I can make sure they stop bleeding at some point. I use the same process as NikkiLu. :)

I bought Hoffman batiks (black/gold); pre-washed in the hottest water my machine allows (which I do with all my fabric). Didn't notice any bleeding. Dried in the dryer. Washed the quilt after it was completed; still no bleeding noticed. Sold the leftover fabric. That person washed and still had bleeding. Guess we just never know

My name is ****** and I'm NOT a pre-washer.......

However, I was top stitching a bright orange batik bag handle and looked down at my machine to see some of the dye had come off onto my machine. I'd used the same fabric for the lining and some of the bag panel was very light blue :eek:. I carried on and completed the bag and put it in the washer with 3 colour-catcher sheets. The orange faded a little, but didn't bleed on to the other colours.

Still don't pre-wash.

I do not pre wash anything and I do not use any of the products to stabilize the color. Have not had any issues yet. That being said, I would hold my breath every time I take my quilt out of the washer :) I use color catchers and sometimes they get really soaked with color and nasty.

I was all my new quilts with synthrapol and have never had a problem.

I pre wash batiks always. Sometimes there is bleeding, I buy quality fabric, and the bleeding is not manufacture dependent.

Batiks are the only fabrics I prewash or if they're pre-cuts I will fast the completed quilt with vinegar or something that will prevent the dyes from staining the quilt.

I really appreciate the input...I don't normally prewash but the batiks are different in my way of thinking. So, am pretty sure I will do something to test them.

Can anyone tell me if it is a problem if all the colors I use in a quilt are woodland colors will any bleed really be a problem? Even the background is a dark fishing print. I am thinking of using black batting too.

All the batiks are 1895 line from Hoffman and are the woodland colors of rust, blue, brown, green.

I adore batiks, and never pre-wash the ones that are high quality, have no 'wrong' side, usually bought on-line. So far I have had no bleeding at all...

The 1895 are some of the biggest bleeders. Toss one into the sink with warm water, leave it for about 10 minutes, hand agitate , and make your own decision.
The problem can be worse if you have a high effieciency /low water washing machine. The released dye will be concentrated.

I prewash all my fabric. When I wash my quilts I use color catchers just in case. Right now I'm washing red for a backing. There is a lot of white on the front of the quilt (what was I thinking!!). It is on the second wash now - with a color catcher - it will be interesting to see how much color it picked up.

I don't buy batiks anymore after choosing and buying some for a very special quilt. HA! I prewash and they bled. And bled, and bled, and ...you get the idea. Some even changed color! It was sad, because I'd bought all of them at quilt shops. I used synthrapol and retayne and then vinegar and nothing really worked. So go figure...

color catchers.. they catch the lose color in your wash so if you have a small piece say a fq and washing isnt always the best idea.. use a color catcher when you finish the product to catch that extra dye :)

I prewash everything. with intense colors, I generally run a check afterwards. I buy good batiks. I have only had one bleed. It was an intense dark blue, that stopped bleeding after a second wash.

I bought 9 yards of a red fabric for the back of a quilt. Washed it at least 6 times with color catcher and it still bled. I had to buy another fabric for the back as the front of the quilt had white fabric in it. Red can really be a problem. Love it but....

I am running a couple of batiks through the washer for a second time right this minute. They bled terribly the first time through so I treated them and am trying again. You never know - no problems with a bunch of them, even dark ones, and then BAM - one of them turns the color catcher the same color as the fabric.

That's what I do too. I learned about this stuff from doing my own dying.

This is good information. I don't pre-wash but haven't used a lot of batiks and haven't had any problems with the ones I have used. However, after reading the posts, I think I'll be more careful in the future.

The "High Quality" batik fabric is no guarantee that it won't bleed.

I love batiks and use them all the time...almost the only fabric I use to be honest...I wash in cold water and add fabric catcher sheets to collect the bleeding...that has worked so far...I never prewash my fabric

I am just now sewing the Batiks I've collected over the months. I did prewash and used a color sheet, all the batiks were a shade of green for I'm doing green chickens on a white chicken wire block, the wire being lime green. One of them bled.

same here. Good stuff ;-)

I pre-wash everything in warm water and hot water. My biggest problem is I came upon a stash that I never noticed when I purchased it, smells like an old house that has been locked up. This was from an estate sale. After washing with Arm and Hammer and vinegar, A&Hammer and ammonia, (all in hot water) then finally in Dawn dish soap and vinegar most of the odor has left. At first I thought it was moth balls then realized it was cedar (made DH take a whiff), that is when I used Dawn dish soap and ammonia. I know a lot of people with allergies and just don't want to give something that will at worst case scenario throw them into a asthmatic attack or anaphylactic attack. Any other ideas? Oh and I did try the borax, it help to rid the stains in some of the fabric.

I prewash everything now. Have been quilting for two years and garment sewing for forty years. Took wonderful quilting classes at the local quilt shop and learned a lot. But they said not to prewash fabric and I have already, in just two years, had three disasters! PREWASH your fabrics!! I am just now doing a project with Batiks. Prewashed the Batik fabric and the water was BLACK. Oh yah, baby....I am a believer...PREWASH!!!!!!

When I was growing up and learning to garment sew 45-50 years ago everyone always prewashed fabric, not just for color bleeding but also shrinkage. Still prewash everything today as you never know where material has been or come from, and what has been in it. If it is being made into anything that will be washed, why put all that labor into it before washing and then find out you have a mess for one reason or another.

somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember my Mother using vinegar to cut bleeding in fabric.. have any of you heard this and does it work? I would like to have a "home" product to stop the bleedingirather than purchasing a new product...I like spending my money for fabric..can anyone relate to this way of thinking???

I'm afraid I belong to the wash it before you use it club. I will add fabric to my laundry to wash and if I don't have a full load, I wash and rinse the fabric in the sink. I've been surprised when some of the darker fabrics did not bleed, but there was one medium green that I had to wash out 3-4 times because it bled so much and it was from a LQS, so you never know.

Fabrics were dyed with acid dye in your (our) mother's day and vinegar did work at that time. Today's fabrics are dyed with fiber-reactive dyes and vinegar has absolutely no effect at all on them. Neither does salt. It is chemically impossible for them to work. Sorry. :o

I have had fairly good luck with batiks. I use the color catchers tho when I wash.

I don't usually prewash my fabrics. I just use color catchers when I wash them and it works well.

I never pre wash and I use mostly Batiks. If I remember I throw in a couple of color catchers. So far everything has been fine.

Interesting, I've only had one fabric discolor my machine. And it wasn't a batik, it was a seasonal (harvest) print from Jo-Ann Fabrics. It was the orange that rubbed off. The quilt is a UFO and hasn't been washed yet. Color-catchers ready and waiting!

I prewash all of my new fabrics simply because I never know what is going to go with what. If one piece shrinks 3% and another shrinks 5%, my quilt block becomes wonky. I also want to make sure nothing bleeds. It's amazing what color catchers catch!

It's true that vinegar (or salt) no longer works on the colors in fabric. However, if you want to make sure a quilt is washed clean of soap (soap attracts dust/dirt, and makes the quilt get dirtier faster) add a cup of white vinegar to the rinse water. Also, you aren't supposed to use fabric softener on a quilt for the same reason; it attracts dust/dirt etc. But the vinegar will act as a natural fabric softener. If I'm washing a quilt, I will often do 1 rinse with vinegar, and then another with just water. Probably overkill, but it helps here in the desert with all the dust around.

I've not had problems with my batiks. They have been of all sorts from WM jelly rolls to very nice LQS yardage. Not to say the next one I come across might not give me fits. Lol! Now every piece of denim fabric or clothing I've ever had is another story entirely. . .

I was firmly in the no-pre-wash camp, mostly because I think limp fabric is much harder to work with. But I decided to wash my batiks (took 3 afternoons with the ironing), and something in the orange/gold range bled on each of the washloads. I did use a color catcher, but stopped at just the one warm wash/rinse cycle. The good ones ironed up pretty much like new. I never expect a finely woven fabric to shrink, and this has been my experience. The cruder, heavier batiks will shrink like any other loosly woven fabric.