Batiks...
#31
Power Poster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Lowell, MA
Posts: 14,083
I'm afraid I belong to the wash it before you use it club. I will add fabric to my laundry to wash and if I don't have a full load, I wash and rinse the fabric in the sink. I've been surprised when some of the darker fabrics did not bleed, but there was one medium green that I had to wash out 3-4 times because it bled so much and it was from a LQS, so you never know.
#32
somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember my Mother using vinegar to cut bleeding in fabric.. have any of you heard this and does it work? I would like to have a "home" product to stop the bleedingirather than purchasing a new product...I like spending my money for fabric..can anyone relate to this way of thinking???
#36
My name is ****** and I'm NOT a pre-washer.......
However, I was top stitching a bright orange batik bag handle and looked down at my machine to see some of the dye had come off onto my machine. I'd used the same fabric for the lining and some of the bag panel was very light blue . I carried on and completed the bag and put it in the washer with 3 colour-catcher sheets. The orange faded a little, but didn't bleed on to the other colours.
Still don't pre-wash.
However, I was top stitching a bright orange batik bag handle and looked down at my machine to see some of the dye had come off onto my machine. I'd used the same fabric for the lining and some of the bag panel was very light blue . I carried on and completed the bag and put it in the washer with 3 colour-catcher sheets. The orange faded a little, but didn't bleed on to the other colours.
Still don't pre-wash.
#37
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Southeast Georgia
Posts: 2,526
I prewash all of my new fabrics simply because I never know what is going to go with what. If one piece shrinks 3% and another shrinks 5%, my quilt block becomes wonky. I also want to make sure nothing bleeds. It's amazing what color catchers catch!
#38
Fabrics were dyed with acid dye in your (our) mother's day and vinegar did work at that time. Today's fabrics are dyed with fiber-reactive dyes and vinegar has absolutely no effect at all on them. Neither does salt. It is chemically impossible for them to work. Sorry.
#39
I've not had problems with my batiks. They have been of all sorts from WM jelly rolls to very nice LQS yardage. Not to say the next one I come across might not give me fits. Lol! Now every piece of denim fabric or clothing I've ever had is another story entirely. . .
#40
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Richmond, VA
Posts: 601
I was firmly in the no-pre-wash camp, mostly because I think limp fabric is much harder to work with. But I decided to wash my batiks (took 3 afternoons with the ironing), and something in the orange/gold range bled on each of the washloads. I did use a color catcher, but stopped at just the one warm wash/rinse cycle. The good ones ironed up pretty much like new. I never expect a finely woven fabric to shrink, and this has been my experience. The cruder, heavier batiks will shrink like any other loosly woven fabric.
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