Need advice-anyone know of a product to spray on or?? that might keep fabric from sloughing off dye color? Friend washed her backing (given to her-not one she purchased) and while quilting, it is sloughing off the dye color. All suggestions will be much appreciated. She's in a rush to complete large wall quilt for a show.

Yikes! The fabric is already being used? She could try washing the completed quilt in Retayne to help set the dye, however I have only used this product when it is still just fabric yardage never in a completed project. Maybe throw a shout color catcher in as well to keep the bleed from going on the front of the quilt.


If this is a wall hanging, perhaps it would be best to just live with the dye coming off during quilting then put another back over the backing (like muslin) before binding it to keep the dye from transferring to the wall.

OH NO!
I would try what Feline Fanatic suggested.
I might even try taking it to the dry cleaners.
My little sister ended up with a red sock in her whites and well you know the story. I took her load of "pinks" and soak them in the washer with oxiclean for about 4 hours and all the pink came out.
Gosh I feel for her.

If she has not already sandwiched it into the quilt, she needs to wash it in Retayne and then test it. Sometimes fabric will need to be washed again in Retayne to fix all dye. Retayne permanently fixes dye that has not bee properly set.

If it's already in the quilt (you mention that she is quilting), the only thing she can do is wash the finished quilt in Synthrapol with several color catchers thrown in and hope for the best. Synthrapol suspends unset dye particles in water so they can be washed away. (You never want to wash a finished quilt in Retayne. It will permanently set any bleeds.)

If the dye is "rubbing off" onto other fabrics and surfaces, this is called crocking. The fabric may contain excess dye (more than the fibers can aborb) that was not properly rinsed out. There is no spray that I know of that will prevent crocking.

The one thing I could suggest trying is spray starching the surface several times. (Lay out on a larger sheet, mist with spray starch, let dry, mist again, let dry, etc.) The starch might provide a barrier to prevent the dye from crocking excessively. It also makes machine quilting easier.

Thanks for the great info, I'll pass it along. Right now my friend plans to cut the backing off then use a high quality pre-washed backing. I learn more from this place than anywhere else. :thumbup:

An old remedy is to put alum in the water when you wash the quilt but it doesn't mean that the colour won't bleed first if it is already sloughing off. I had a crimson colour slough off whilst I was quilting, but it did not bleed into the quilt when washed in this way. Perhaps she could be just as lucky. If not, just embellish, embellish, embellish.