Pre-washing Batik Fabrics
 

I'am making a quilt and using background fabric from stash that's already been prewash along with a batik jelly roll from Jo Ann fabric that has not been prewashed, will that cause me a problem in the long run as far as shrinkage and bleeding. My background fabric is white kona and the jelly roll is rich blue batik prints. Any help could possibly save me some time and expense and a lesson well learned.

I've found quite a few batiks bleed. Sort by color and slosh each color in a bucket of HOT water, rinsing until the bleeding stops. Then rinse in vinegar water.

Remember that a combo of all colors results in a ugly brown color.

I answered on your other thread on this topic: http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...s-t230193.html

What is the difference between Synthrapol and Retayne? My newest washing machine doesn't have a hot water setting, and the amount of water in the tub is a lot less than older machines. Does anyone have a suggestion to help with this? Hand washing is formidable when you have a lot of yardage to do and if your hands can stand the really hot water.

Retayne is used to permanently set dye in fabric. You use it on individual fabrics or fabrics in a color grouping. I personally do not usually use Retayne. If a fabric bleeds enough to require it, I don't use that fabric in a quilt.

Synthrapol is used after the quilt has been made. It suspends loose dye particles in water so they don't create a "bleed" in other fabrics.

Domestic front-loader washing machines do *not* use enough water to make either Retayne or Synthrapol effective. They also do not provide enough water to dilute dye bleeds. I have a small front-loader and I always take my new quilts to the laundromat for their first wash. I use the largest front-loader at the laundromat.

You can use a domestic top-loader washing machine to prewash fabric as long as it uses enough water to dilute bleeding dyes. Fill with water and add anything you are going to use, *stop the machine*, add your fabrics and use a sturdy dowel (a couple of bucks from the hardware store) to push the fabrics down and around. Manual agitation like this is much easier on the fabrics/quilt than using the machine's agitator. Advance the machine to the spin cycle and and allow rinse water to fill the tub. Again, stop the machine to hand agitate, advance to spin cycle. Machine agitation cycle is not safe, but machine spin cycle is. Be sure to immediately dry the fabric; do not allow damp fabrics to lie against each other as dye can transfer through this kind of contact too. This is a way to prewash fabric without getting your hands in the hot water.

Try this trick, cut some squares of the batiks and the background fabric. Put them all in a container together, add hot water and let them sit for awhile. Pull the background fabric out and if it's still the same color as the unwashed background fabric you can use the batiks without prewashing them. After the quilt is done make sure you wash it in a top loader so there's enough water to float away the excess dye.

Since batiks are a tighter weave and they've been boiled to remove the resist they don't shrink much at all.

Showed up as "invalid thread"

Penny, if your machine has a "bulky/bedding" option, that'll give you more water.

Must have been removed as a duplicate thread.

i always prewash then starch and iron i had a quilt bleed on me