Pre-washing Batik Fabrics
#11
Power Poster
Join Date: May 2008
Location: MN
Posts: 24,660
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.
Since batiks are a tighter weave and they've been boiled to remove the resist they don't shrink much at all.
#12
That's when you have an actual problem. If the white picks up the blue then you need to determine if it'll wash back out. It generally will because you have to do something chemically to set modern chemical dyes. Most of the time a wash with lots of water and OxyClean will take out excess dyes fabrics have picked up. There used to be a product made just for taking out dyes that other fabrics had picked up. I think it was made by Carbonara but I wouldn't swear to it.
#13
I have a collection of over 200+ batiks. I took on the huge job of pre-washing them all last winter and probably a good 1/2 of them did bleed - the blues were the worst. While I do not have any pre-cuts, I think that I would just gently put them in a pure white pan of lukewarm water with a drop of liquid soap and see if your water is blue. Rinse until the water is clear and then roll up in thirsty towels and then line dry - over an indoor line of some sort - or shower curtain rod, etc. Iron if necessary.
#14
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Illinois
Posts: 9,312
That's when you have an actual problem. If the white picks up the blue then you need to determine if it'll wash back out. It generally will because you have to do something chemically to set modern chemical dyes. Most of the time a wash with lots of water and OxyClean will take out excess dyes fabrics have picked up. There used to be a product made just for taking out dyes that other fabrics had picked up. I think it was made by Carbonara but I wouldn't swear to it.
I sew 100's of yards of batiks every year and would never ever trust any one of them not to bleed. I spend countless hours piecing and would never want the heartbreak of a bleed that could have been prevented.
Last edited by Lori S; 09-16-2013 at 10:12 AM.
#15
My test for fabric bleeding is to take snips of the colors being tested and soak them in boiling water. I take a piece of white muslin and put in on a ceramic plate. Fish out the colored fabric and arrange it on one half of the muslin. Fold the other half over the snips and add enough water to make it all wet, but not swimming. Wait a day until it is dry. Pull the top back and remove the snips. If the muslin is still pristine, you are safe. Faint coloring in the shape of your snips is a bad sign!
#16
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.
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.
If I'm concerned a fabric will bleed, I put it in my big stock pot, set it in the bathtub and put HOT water on it and rinse and rinse until the bleeding stops. Only do a small amount at a time, but I can see easy enough how fabric is behaving.
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