Anne P

I bought two pieces of red fabrics yesterday to use for Christmas table runners. I decided to check for color fastness and, sure enough, bleeding of both pieces.

When checking info abut it, the website said that front-loading washing machines "do not supply enough water to properly treat" the fabric. I would need to "swish it around for 20 minutes". Has anyone done this? Twenty minutes is a long time to stand there swishing fabric!!!

Has anyone had any luck using the washing machine? I have two pieces that are each 1.5 yards. I'm wondering if I do each one separately in the machine if that would be enough water?

Tartan

I think you need quite hot water as well? I have a top loading washer and I use straight hot water. I have no experience with front loading.

PaperPrincess

The fabric needs to be completely submerged in the Retayne & water solution. I don't think you really need to agitate constantly for 20 minutes, you just want to make sure the solution penetrates the entire piece of fabric. If you swished for a few minutes every so often you should be OK. The other thing is how often are you going to launder table runners?

Peckish

I don't even bother with the washing machine. I put fabric in the bathtub with very hot water and a dab of detergent, then let it sit overnight. In the morning, I drain it and move it to the washing machine for a rinse & spin, then dry it in the dryer. I've never had a fabric bleed after doing this.

I learned this technique from a hand-dyer. This is how she treats her fabrics after she dyes them.

GEMRM

Do you put Retayne in too?

Peckish

No, just a dab of detergent.

Daylesewblessed

I do Retayne treatments of medium/small pieces in the sink. I do not agitate constantly, but I do attempt to maintain high water temperature by adding small amounts of super hot water on and off throughout the process. I stir after each addition. If I have yardage, I use the washer. There also I add hot water as needed.

sdeaaz

I am wanting to start a scrap quilt with bone kona as the background. wonder if this would work for me... really nervous about by scraps bleeding.

Jeanette Frantz

I've had problems with dyes bleeding -- the dyes are NOT organic -- so they bleed. I had a red border on a while-whole cloth embroidered top. BEFORE I assembled the top with the border, I tested it -- and Oh, YEAH!, it surely bled. A search around town (every store in town, as a matter of fact) revealed NO Retayne, nor any dye fixative of any kind. Uh. oh!

Well, I began an internet search. On the Rit Dye website, I found a product named "Rit Laundry Treatment (Dye Fixative). The directions for stove-top use, read: Add 4 tablespoons of Rit Dye Fixative to 3 gallons of hot water for each 1/2 to 3/4 pound DRY fabric. Add fabric, and stir constantly for 20 minutes. Rinse in cold water (I do this in the washer) and dry. The trick with this is: I begin with the palest shades of fabric in my quilt, adding 1 tablespoon of the Dye Fixative for each load of fabric being treated. This product could also be used as a dye fixative for hand-painted pieces of fabric. I found this product online, and I tested my fabric both before and after treatment. After treatment, the fabric did NOT bleed. However, if it were my quilt, I would still use color catchers in the laundry. I know that's a lot of trouble, but making a quilt is a lot of work, and if I know I have a "bleeder" in fabric, I'm definitely going to treat the fabric BEFORE I use it. The cost of shipping the product is higher than the price of the product, which i think is pretty much normal. I still have almost a full bottle of the dye fixative, and I think I will be ordering some more soon!

Jeanette

quiltsRfun

Don't know if it works but I saw on Pinterest that blue Dawn dish detergent works the same as Retayne.