HELP, Everything is RED
 

Okay ladies, I found my bottle of Retayne and proceeded to wash all my red fabric. EVERYTHING is red, even the little white design on a few pieces. What do I do now? Rewash and throw in a couple of color catchers or do these pieces go in the trash.

Did you follow the instructions?

Yep, followed the instructions, even read them twice. Fill tub w/hot water, add 1 tsp. of Retayne per yard of fabric, add fabric and wash for 20 minutes. :rolleyes:

Retayne sets the color. It's meant to be used on solid fabrics, not on prints, although I don't know whether that particular bit of information is stated in the directions. I don't think there's anything that will remove the red.

Don't dry it! That'll set the color more than it already is.

You can try Synthropol, and/or just wash, wash, wash, wash, wash the piece(s) that have the bleeds and see if that helps. If the dye came loose once, there's a chance it'll do it again! Definitely try rewashing a few times before throwing it away - it can't hurt! The Retayne might have set it for good but you won't know unless you try - you might get lucky.

The Retayne will be removed if you wash it again in warm to hot water.. and yes use syntropol to get out the dye that settled in white areas.

Retayne is removed in hot water, so you should be able to wash again with Synthrapol (which uses hot water) to remove the unwanted dye.

Do you have a top loader or front loader? Need to treat fabric in a bucket or laundry tub because there's not enough water in a front loader.

:thumbdown: I don't have any Synthropol. I'm on my 4th washing and a 1/2 box of color catchers. Some of the red did come out of the white but not all. Whatever I end up with after this washing is what I'll have to deal with. I think I found one of the culprits which I removed, but no matter what, I'm done.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Synthropol is meant to release excess dyes in hand dyed fabric. Retayne is for commercially dyed fabric.

see, the secret is do not buy anything red......who is the mfg of this bleeding mess??????? I just cannot believe that with the price of fabric as high as it is they cannot control the bleed factor...maybe we should all write and complain and see what happens........

And are you going to no longer use blues?
greens?
blacks?
oranges?
browns?
purples?
yellows?
etc. etc.

Bleeding is not exclusive to reds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


There's no reason to NOT use any colours ... just prepare them properly before sewing to avoid the heartbreaks. :)

I was in a rush to wash (with Orvis) a red/black/white quilt one early morning. I did not have any Retayne or Synthropol. But did prewash my fabrics and had color catchers, so thought it should be okay. $&^(^%^ it bled!!! OH NO, closest LQS is 30 minutes away (still in PJ's) and the would not be open for a couple of hours. Searched online and found someone suggesting Dawn Dish Soap (blue original Concentrate, which I had). Figured I had nothing to loose. Washed again with Dawn and color catcher, 95% of red is gone and color catcher is pink. Washed again ~ white color catcher and NO red on the white. :)

I have the same question....who manufactured the bleeding stuff and do you recall where you bought it? You'd be doing the rest of us a favor, a heads-up when we go to purchase.

If you have nothing to loose,rit makes a dye remover that i have used to remove dye that migrated to white on a shirt. It took the dye out, did not harm the shirt color. In my stores it is in the laundry section. Might be worth a try unless you can use the fabric as is.

I always put a dye catcher sheet in my laundry - never know what might surprise me and fade. Plus, if you do modern art quilts the used dye sheets make interesting bits in an art quilt.

Don't trash the fabric. If you won't use it, sell it here on the board, surely someone else can find a way to use it.

Tonight I heard of a friend who bought an Amish quilt. Her husband said she had to wash it, so she did: a queen size quilt in a top loader home machine. The red bled all over the white. She was told to spray the white with Zout. She did; washed it in a commercial machine, and the red is gone from the white.

UPDATE

Just ran across the red fabric from 2012 that bled all over, even after about 6 washings. Really hated to throw it out because it was a such gorgeous red so, I decided to try it again,TWICE! Yep, still bleeds. It's going in the trash tomorrow. :thumbdown:

dylon's sos color run.

it seriously saved a red disaster. magical stuff.

aileen

I was told by a professional fabric dyer to use Synthrapol to remove excess dye from fabrics and leave Retayne on the shelf.

Don't trash the fabric another person may be delighted to have it and we have the free stuff on this board. Sorry you had a disaster. If you really want to trash this PM me and I can take it off your hands.

synthropol keeps fugitive dyes from settling on surrounding fabrics- keeps the dye suspended in the water- so if you have a 'bleeder' the dye stays in the water & does not get on the other fabrics in the wash- *good thing to have on hand* since retayne helps set dyes it will help all of the fabrics in the wash to hold onto any dye in the water. 2 different products of 2 different scenarios (setting dye or washing away excess dye)

not sure how to solve your problem but I would definately notify the store you bought the fabric from and let them know how much it bled. They may not be aware of the bleeding issue. Then they should let other cstomers know about the bleeding issue.

Just for the future, When washing fabrics that you think will run, soak a corner of each fabric first in a bowl of hot, hot, hot water. Some fabric will surprise you and not bleed dye into the water, so wash but don't teat that fabric. Fabric that bleeds - wash with treatment. fabrics that bleed a lot - treat separately or don't use.

This is exactly why I always test my fabrics before any mishaps can happen. We all put so much effort into creating our quilts so taking care to insure the best results is a simple thing.
peace

Synthrapol is a surfactant and so is dawn dish washing detergent but only the blue variety. It may be worth trying that as it is readily available and inexpensive. Learned about this in a dying class on Craftsy.

Kept reading about everyone's success with Retayne, soooooo, I gave it another shot. I had about 2 oz. of Retayne left so I just dumped it all in and sent it thru another wash. It finally worked! No more red. I am one happy camper.
:D

So glad to know it was successful for you. Some fabrics just have so much dye in them it can take several attempts to tame the dye.
peace

why not experiment and try to use the fabric and the bleeding to your advantage? pair it with a white or other light fabric - make a simple star or other design ensuring that the lighter fabric is in pieces large enough to show "dye creep", then wash to see what turns out....might be something really cool. local shop owner had it happen to her by accident- the dye seeped into the adjacent white fabric and made the most wonderful shading. If you're adventurous, it may be worth the time.