fabric bleed
 

I prewash all of my quilt fabric and was amazed recently when a quilt I was binding bled after being laid on table where droplets of water had formded at the base of a glass. Yikes! So I put it in the bath tub. The offender was a Kaffe red fabric. Squeezed out and all was great. Hung overnight on rack and woke in the morning to find another fabric (Alison Glass) aqua had bled onto border. Googled and found the Dawn detergent method. Swish, rinse, repeat. Now that is over and quilt will be bound this weekend, I am researching what can I do to prevent this in the future. Retayne product or Synthrapol??? Read several conflicting views... Any experience, opinions or other thoughts?

In some 40 years of quilting I've only had one bad experience with fabric bleeding. I've always been a believer in prewashing and even more so after having a top ruined. I actually did prewash the bad (name brand quilt shop quality) fabric but it wasn't sufficient It never did stop bleeding and turned a sophisticated blue, maroon,silver and white quilt into blue,maroon, silver and baby pink.

Prewash with color catchers and double check especially reds and dark batiks. You can take a little snippet of fabric (after the initial prewash), wet it and place on a white paper towel to see if any more dye is cast off.

I love a little bit of original Dawn. I've down other things including heat treating (boil or microwave), vinegar, salt, etc. but really, if it is still bleeding after 2 washes, I'd just move on to a more trustworthy fabric.

I.have started soaking everything inthe hottest tap warse available eith a drop or two of dawn added to the worse.

I sort colors with like colors. So if there a bleeder or just a fabric with excess dye, it will not cause much damage.

Then I let everything soak in the hottest tap water available.for at least three hours.

Vickie Welsh ( I think is her name).has an excellent article about how she treats her fabrics before cutting them - and how to lighten or remove a bleed.

Will someone please post the link? I do not know how to do that on my phone.

I too had a dark red and a dark blue Jinny beyer fabric bleed when I sprayed sizing on some units sewn with light gray when I "just" gave the fabrics a quick wash in tepid water.

Then when I am comfortable that all the fabrics will have good manners when washed together, I give them a quick gentle wash,
i feel that crowding and over agitating the fabrics is what makes them look used.

I have had a bleed or excess dye from just about every intense or dark color.

I do not know ahead of time which brand will have bad manners.

if a fabric will not quit bleeding , I will not use it.

Nor will i donate it without a warning/ advisory attached to it.

At any rate, isolate the bleeder so it does not get accidentally used.

Here's the link to Vicky Welsh's web article https://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/sav...g-quilt.html#/
Hope this helps.

I've always been a pre-washer because I want to check to make sure colors won't run and that everything is preshrunk. I made a scrap quilt recently using prewashed reds, and still had some run. Fortunately, the blue Dawn worked to remove the red color run on my white background. But now I buy Retayne in large amounts and pretreat every fabric which shows any likelihood of running. It's not cheap, but it's well worth it to me to know my quilt (that I've poured time and effort into) won't be ruined when washed by either me or a recipient. It also doesn't take a lot of Retayne to treat a fabric. Color catchers don't set dyes, so I find them of very little use, other than to show me that a fabric's dyes are not set when washing. Blues, reds, purples, and greens seem to be the worst offenders, but I also had a light yellow run. The price of the fabric doesn't ensure that the dyes won't run.

I too am a pre-washer. Anything hat I think might run, I wash with Retayne. I turn my hot water heater up on high, put my fabric in washer then fill my washer let agitate a couple of minutes, then let it set with lid closed for about 3 hours or more, then let it finish agitating and rinse. Then I wash as usual with a color catcher and if it still bleeds, I repeat and do again. If the fabric continues to bleed, I destroy fabric and get different fabric. I know this seems like a lot, but with $14 plus a yard it is worth it to me. I do turn my hot water heater down after my machine fills, as I do not want anyone to get a hot water burn.

Thank you for the feedback. I will now be looking for Retayne online as neither of our LQS have it.

I've had a problem with fabric crocking....where it transfers color because it just touches another fabric. If the fabric is wet and sits touching another fabric. the color from one fabric can transfer to the the fabric it touches. Can't figure out how to remove the "crocked" color without removing all color. Some things I just live with.

Would Retayne work?

It's worth a try, instead of "living" with it, as at some point, you may end up with something stained that you really care about.

Good idea; I'll give it a try.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.