My mother unpacked a quilt top that her mother and grandmother pieced in the 1930's. It was very dusty, so she gently hand-washed it and of course every red piece and some of the navy pieces ran terribly. We didn't feel too badly because my grandmother would have been horrified if we had tried to work with something as dusty as this top was. The top has been finished and hand-quilted and we've been pondering the dye stains, toying with the idea of trying the Synthrapol to see if it works. I picked up a bottle in a quilt shop today and explained the situation. The clerk said that her mother used to use ice to remove dye stains that hadn't been heat set. She'd put the quilt in a bathtub and put ice directly on the stain.

So, has anyone ever heard of using ice to remove dye that has run into the surrounding fabrics?

And if not, what has been your experience with Synthrapol?

I use Synthrapol on my hand dyed fabric and it works great.

along with the synthropol toss in color catchers they will also help draw the migrant dye and keep it from getting on any other areas.

This is what I would try... just water alone may make it bleed even more and no where for the dye to go but on the fabric :D:D:D

Synthrapol is for use with hand dyes. Retayne is for commercially dyed fabrics. You should be able to get it at your LQS.

Synthrapol is designed to suspend unset dye particles in water so they are washed away. This is what you would want to use on this quilt, as it will work on lifting up the bleeds (which probably have not been chemically set or heat set at this point). It can take several washings with Synthrapol to remove all traces of a bleed, so be patient.

You definitely do not want to use Retayne on a quilt. Retayne would permanently fix any unwanted bleeds, making them impossible to remove. Retayne is wonderful for yardage, before it is ever cut and sewed into a quilt, because it will prevent the type of problem your mother had when she washed the quilt for the first time.

Be sure to use a washing machine that has plenty of water in it. A home front-loader, for example, will not supply enough water. You want enough water to make sure that dye particles lifted out by the Synthrapol are not too concentrated in the wash water; you want those particles dispersed as much as possible. It wouldn't hurt to throw dye catchers in with the Synthrapol too.

I don't know about the ice treatment. Might be worth a try on one spot to see what happens. I can't imagine ice would set a bleed.

Great info- thanks!

Thanks for all the science of colors running.

Synthrapol would probably be perfect for the fabrics in this quilt, then, because, chances are, the fabrics were probably home-dyed in that period.

Jan in VA

Thank you for all your feedback. Another question...

If she's not quite ready to try a washing machine -- 75-year-old fabric, you know -- has anyone tried using a solution of Synthrapol and water with a Q-tip to dab on the dye? A friend said she heard about someone doing that, but she didn't know anything about the steps taken beyond that.