HELP any way to salvage my poor DGS quilt
 

I had made my Grandson an American Flag quilt. I had prewashed all the red for the stripes and even pre washed the red flannel for the backing. Was happy with the results for there was not alot of bleeding and figured I was ready to go. I made his quilt and he has been loving it. My DD went and washed it and of course it bled. She took it to the dry cleaners to see if they can come up with a solution and they said they felt it would only be made worse. I feel horrible for the little guy loved it so much. I had used Kona cottons and figured I used the better cottons and less chance of issues. HA Of course this means going to the fabric store again and buying all poly cotton blends to make him another one. ARGH!!

I managed to remove bleeding with Oxyclean on my dark blue quilt (took 3 washes - still slightly viisble, but liveable). Others have said that if you baste colour catchers right over the bleed areas and wash again, that helps. Of course, if it's been through the dryer it's harder. But those are 2 options to try.

rewash it with a couple color catchers- a couple washes may remove what ran...it doesn't really seem to matter what manufacturer the fabrics come from- reds tend to run- especially if warm water was used instead of cold. the grandson probably doesn't mind a bit- i bet he still loves it all the same- as long as the 2 of you are not all negative about it in front of him it's not going to matter one bit- he will continue to love it until it's a rag- and maybe longer than that.

I recommend this product:

http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/en...chemicals.html

Ok she posted a pic for me on FB as they are in California and it is not as bad as i thought it would be. I am agreeing with the dry cleaner it looks like the flannel on the back bled for the bleed is too even to be the stripes. I will forward these ideas to her. She did rewash it with 4 dye grabbers and it didnt do the trick but heck she can keep going..lol thank you all!

there are two laundry products that i have used in the past on everyday clothes. these caused bleeding... Tide and Arm and Hammer washing soda. i won't use these products again, especially not on my quilt fabric.

The bleeds are unset dyes. I agree with Feline Fanatic. Wash the quilt in hot water and Synthrapol until all the bleeds are gone. Synthrapol suspends unset dyes in water so the dye particles can be rinsed away. It can take more than one washing in Synthrapol. I would inspect the quilt before drying, and simply re-wash in Synthrapol and hot water as long as bleeds are obvious. This needs to be done in a machine that uses a *lot* of water; a large front-loader in a laundromat would be ideal.

Many quilt shops carry Synthrapol; call and ask. Here is a link to it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Craft-Synthrap...dp/B000YZ3UHQ/

I'll bet your grandson doesn't care one way or the other and I'll bet it keeps him just as warm. She should just give it back to him and not worry about the color bleed. Chances are it'll come out eventually anyway. (hubby's whitey tightys went back to white eventually)

Ws it the Kona or the flannel back that bled. Fannel is notorious for bleeding. I have never had Kona cottons bleed very much at all. I don't like to use flannel for this reason.

So sorry for all the work you did and now to do it all over again. Oh well!

peace

I am pretty sure it was the flannel, I had prewashed that too and there was so little on the dye catchers that i figured we were going to be safe, it was not a deep red but more an orange red and he loved it. I have sent all the tips on and she is going to try to wash it again I believe. I feel so bad for my DGS for he is one that knows what he wants and how he wants it, he decided on this as a quilt right before his 8th bday. He is now 9, took me a little while to get it done with my Mom dying of cancer and all. So now back ot hte drawing board and trying to decide do I make the new top the same way and then back it with an off white fabric or go with a poly cotton blend on the top instead of the Konas? Too many decisions!