Black fabric bleeding
 

I am making a quilt with grays, blacks, and reds materials. I decided to wash it all before I started-for fear of the red bleeding. Well surprise! The reds did not bleed at all. I only have one fabric that is bleeding. It is a black fabric. I have washed it in the sink in real hot water, let it soak about 20 minutes each time. I also put Dawn dish soap in the water as I heard that helps set the dye, But it is still bleeding. I don't want to drive 35 minutes to my LQS just to buy Retayne. Will anything work? What about vinegar?

Vinegar only worked with the older vegetal dyes. Won't work with the modern chemical ones. Did you dry it in the dryer? Sometimes the heat will set the dye. Another radical idea is wash a small piece of all the fabrics together and use a color catcher. The fact that a fabric bleeds doesn't mean that the other fabrics will necessarily accept the dye.

Unless it's fabric pre-70's vinegar won't make a difference. Back in the 70's dyes were changed to be more environmentally friendly, no longer using vineyards to neutralize the acids. I would wash it in a washer & regular detergent and keep washing, rinsing until there is no more color lost. Sometimes a fabric doesn't stop & you just have to replace it. I've used Kona black many times & never had it bleed.

For me, black has been notoriously bad, followed by red, purple, navy blue, brown, orange, and yellow. I keep Retayne on hand at all times.

I would not use it.

I would not use it either until I could get it to stop bleeding. Keep soaking it for days and hopefully you will be successful at ridding it of the excess dyes. Interesting that others keep posting that vinegar doesn't help, because I recently had a friend wash a little credit card wallet that each of us had been gifted. Hers ran like crazy.... SO... I soaked mine overnight in vinegar and no bleeding.... same fabrics... modern looking so I'm presuming they were within the last 5 years.
I only purchased Retayne once in my life and while I was soaking my white & navy quilt in it in the bathtub, trying to get the blue out of the white fabrics.... I read a notice on it..... It said something like that it wasn't allowed to be sold in the state of California because it contained a known carcinogen..... I threw it out... and have never purchased it again. Since then I've read that it contains formaldehyde but many products used these days do... ugh.... I'm still not up for using it.

Have used Shout Color Catcher in wash w/good result. I put two in a small mesh laundry bag to orevent it clogging outlet hoses. I have also read vinigar or salt NOT good to use .

Exactly how do you use Retayne? I've used it once but don't know if I used it properly.

Everything in California is a known carcinogen. You can't go into a store without seeing those signs.
Bunch of hogwash I say.
Personally, good job finding this fabric before it was sewn into your quilt. Use it for a dog bed and try another brand of black fabric. As mentioned, Kona from Kaufmann is good.

tim in san jose

Procion dyes used for cottons in home dying are fixed with sodium carbonate (also known as soda ash). This is also used to raise the pH of swimming pools. About a cup to a gallon of water. You could try soaking the fabric in that for about 20 minutes then rinse and wash. Might help. Have never tried it myself.
Dawn doesn't set dye. It keeps it in suspension in the water so works kind of like color catchers to keep it from depositing on other fabrics. And only the blue dawn.