Try a product called Synthrapol. I hope the spelling is right. It will take the excess dye out of fabric. I had a quilt in which one color bled (won at a raffle) and it worked on it just fine. I bought it at my local quilt shop.

soaok in white vinger,dry it then press it flat with a press cloth saoked with vinger may help--good luck

Thank you for all the replies. I forgot to mention that the backing fabric is a flannel batik from SewBatik. I will post the results when I am finished.

Vinegar

I tryed the Retayne on 28 fq's hand dyes, it did not work at all they bled all over my yardage and made it pepto pink. I am so sad the yardage did not bled at all just the hand dyes. The yardage was a robert Kaufman red fabric with white reindeer on it it is pepto pink now. :(

I am really sorry about your experience, but I am wondering if you misunderstood how to use the Retayne. Retayne should have been used on the hand-dyes by themselves, and the hand-dyes should have been re-tested for colorfastness before being combined with the yardage. Retayne should never be used on a finished quilt (or with a combination of fabrics) because it will permanently set any bleeds.

It sounds as if whoever did the hand-dyed FQs did not set the dyes properly and/or skimped on the rinsing. Correctly setting the dyes means that as much dye as the fibers can absorb is set permanently into the fabric. With hand dyes, there may be a lot more dye in the fabric than the fibers can possibly absorb; that's why rinsing at the end is a critical step. Hand dyes (which have been properly set) should be rinsed until there is no more bleeding of color (excess dye). Excess dye is just as bad as unset dye in terms of coloring other fabrics.

Synthrapol is what I use for the first washing of a quilt. It performs a different task than Retayne. Synthrapol *prevents* loose dye from being set into other fabrics. It cannot handle horrible bleeds, but it is really good about preventing minor bleeds from discoloring other fabrics. Basically it works on keeping unset dye particles suspended in the water so they are rinsed away.

The recipient does not need to wash in Retayne or Synthrapol if the fabric has been treated correctly beforehand. For example, a fabric that has been treated with Retayne and re-tested for colorfastness can be washed normally afterwards. I always wash my quilts before giving them away, and that is the one time I will use Synthrapol -- just to ensure that no stray dye particles move around in the quilt. Since I have tested fabrics that go into the quilt, I know that there are no extreme bleeders; the one washing in Synthrapol takes care of any excess dye that may or may not be in the other fabrics. The recipient can wash the quilt normally after that (unless I have made a huge mistake and have a "bleeder" on my hands, in which case I would re-wash in Synthrapol until there was no more bleeding; hasn't happened to me yet.......).

I use vinegar. I will put about 3 cups of vinegar in sink and add about 2 gallon of water. Let sit for about 15 minutes. Then rinse with clear cold water. This usually works, even for red fabric. I use vinegar in washer also to keep anything from fading.

I have a quilt top done and did not prewash fabric since it was 75 pre-cut strips of batiks in a kit. Is it okay to wash the top alone, no backing or batting yet and should I use Retayne or Synthropol?