If you had yardage doing that, I'd recommend Retayne. For scraps, I'm with CheshireCatQuilter -- toss them. If you really, really love them -- I might try sending them through the wash on cold water, gentle cycle or hand wash, with a small amount of regular detergent, block & let air dry (so you don't have to iron them again). If that works, great. If not -- it's probably not worth all the expense to buy a fixative. To check if it worked, when totally dried rub a white cloth on the fabric. No dye should come out.

I can sympathize with you. I'd throw the fabric out if you can't stop it from bleeding.

Before I "knew better", I once used a red "bleeder" in a small quilt with a red fabric that was not a great match, and when washed, the Reds played together better. It worked once.....?

Rit Dye Setter. It works 100% on the first process. Available on-line!

Jeanette

[QUOTE=Cheshirecatquilter;7531875]Hmmm. Just scraps? Consider the cost of syntrapol or color catchers plus the time and water and energy used on them. I'd toss and not look back. Your time is much better used quilting and creating.[/QUOTE

I'm with you - not worth my time and effort with all the fabric choices there are.

I'm going to look into this. Thanks for sharing. Didn't know Rit carried this.

wash it in a solution of salt n water sets the colour

There's some really good info at this site: http://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/save...ing-quilt.html

I suggest that you buy a bottle of Retayne. You can find it at most fabric stores ($2.49/6 oz bottle) . You use one cap ful per yard of material ---so it really is not costly. I used it on 9 yards of deep green batik that had turned the color catchers a deep green. I tried the vinegar routine and then the salt routine....Nothing worked until the Retayne. I was not going to throw away 9 yards of the most gorgeous batik. My SIL washes new jeans in Retayne so that they look new for a much longer period of time. It is worth the fuss. I now wash any dark color in Retayne.

Tessagin, I made the quilt pictured in my avatar, with really, really red borders, hand-embroidered satin-stitch on the Arkansas Razorback (also very, very red). Fortunately, my cousin, who has a quilt/fabric shop in Oklahoma, advised me to "test" the fabric for bleeding, which I did. Oh, yeah, it bled like a stuck hog (pun intended). My cousin and I discussed this on the telephone several times, and I began the search for a "dye setter". I looked in every retail store in this town, to no avail. Then, when I got home, thoroughly frustrated, I searched online. In particular, I knew that Rit Dye had a "dye setter", not stocked in local stores, but available online. I ordered the product, treated the fabric according to the instructions, then put it in the washer on rinse cycle (water temperature not an issue), and dried the fabric, ironed it, embroidered it, and completed the quilt. As a tip, I would suggest using a large stew pot on the stove. If you do that, you can start with treating the lighter shades first, then proceed one-by-one with the darker shades; for instance, if I had three shades of red, start with the lightest shade of red and proceed to the darkest shade of red. Supposing you have more than three shades of red, after treating the first three shades (as an example, each fabric being 3 yards) after the first three shades of red you need to add another tablespoon to the stew pot before continuing with the fourth shade of red! I made the quilt pictured in my avatar in 2010, and there's no bleeding. Although I would caution that if it were my quilt (this one was a gift) I would wash it using color catchers. If I spend the time it takes to make a quilt, I would never risk ruining it in the wash! I ordered the product online, just google Rit Dye Setter!

Sorry for making this so very long -- this was my first queen-size bed quilt and I surely did NOT want to risk a wedding gift getting ruined. I know this sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but this was a very special quilt, so I "bought insurance" with my labor and this product. BTW, I have no financial interest in Rit Dye, just a financial interest in the product I used the Rit Dye Product on! THE DYE SETTER IS NOT EXPENSIVE -- I bought three bottles, plus express shipping for less than $20.

I will add this: After treating the red fabric, I cut a small strip of the treated fabric, and tested it in a glass of very hot water, then checked for bleeding with a WHITE PAPER TOWEL -- NO BLEEDING!

Jeanette