If it's hand dyed, don't the colors fade or bleed?

They can. I would hand wash them sorted by color in hot water and see if they bleed. If they do... I use a product that will set the color. And the name escapes me right now.

I am sure someone will come along with the right name.

I use a color catcher.

Depends on the fabric and the type of dye used.

Cotton fabric dyed properly with fibre reactive dyes (Procion, Cibracon, etc) will never bleed or fade. The fabric itself will wear out but the dye will not fade.

retayne will set the color

Thanks Bueniebabe That was the name!

You use Synthropol to set and wash hand dyes.

Synthrapol does not set dyes, Retayne is what you would use to do that. Synthrapol is used to keep loose dyes from attaching to fabric in the wash...it's the same as a Color Catcher.

Oh, o.k. thanks.

if done properly, with procion dyes, the molecules of the dye bond permanently with the fabric molecules. there may initially be run-off of extra dye, but typically, that occurs in the first wash or two while still processing the fabric. I dye my own fabric a lot and have never had either problem. I wash it twice, with an extra rinse cycle, to rid the fabric of the excess dye.