Originally Posted by ghostrider

Just out of curiosity, were any of the red fabrics runners? I mean, did you test them before you washed them as ckcowl suggested? Because if they weren't runners to begin with, then the Dawn didn't really do anything to suspend any dye and it may not actually work for that purpose at all. So next time, if the fabrics ARE runners, you may find yourself in a bit of hot water (pun intended).

As Prism said, the only time I know of that Dawn works the same as Synthrapol is as a surfactant...it makes the fabric more receptive to dye when dyeing...or to remove all coatings from fabric to prepare it for dyeing.

Originally Posted by Buckeye Rose

I know this has been discussed much and am sorry to subject all of you to this again. But....I have a finished quilt ready to be washed and have a couple questions. I didn't wash the fabrics beforehand (was pieced before I became educated) and don't want issues with bleeding fabrics. I read somewhere much earlier to use synthrapol but can't find it anywhere but online. I also read where someone posted that the original Dawn dish soap is almost identical to synthrapol and will accomplish the same thing - keeping the dye particles from settling into the fabrics. Am I correct? I really don't want to screw up this quilt.