betthequilter

Some questions for Retayne users:

1. Do you wash all your "susceptible to bleeding" fabrics in Retayne?

2. What is your determination as to "susceptible to bleeding"? I know red would be a good choice.

3. Can you mix colors in one washing?

Thanks in advance!

feline fanatic

I prewash everything, usually with a color catcher to see if I have a bleeder in the bunch. I wash like colors togethers and don't mix colors. But I have done several different reds in one load or several different blues. If the color catcher is saturated with color I will test each fabric in the load by putting a small snippet in a white dish with hot hot water and let it sit to see if any color leeches out. By saturated with color, I mean vibrant. If I have washed a load of reds and the catcher comes out light pink I do not treat. If the fabric does not leach out additional color in the white dish test, I dry it, iron it and put it in stash for use. If it does bleed I treat with retayne. Definitely do not mix colors when using retayne because you could end up with dye release from one color to another so you will end up with a fabric that may be "muddy" from another color and the retayne will set it. I have had batiks be the worst offenders but often it ends up just being excess dye and when I do the bleed test I get no additional bleed from the fabric. You must use very hot water with retayne and future washes must be in cold water. Follow the directions on the bottle.

Tartan

​I sometimes take a square of fabric, wash it in hot water and put it on a square of white paper towel to dry. If the paper towel has any colour on it you know it’s a bleeder.

TheMerkleFamily

Thank you feline fanatic for sharing your process - I do the 1st step (color catchers) but now will add the 'white dish test' and retayne if necessary. Very helpful advice

illinois

I had an experience just this week with a yardage of purple that I want to use as sashing with cross-stitched blocks. I put it in hot water and, yes, it bled. So it went through several washings, still showing bleeding. Since I didn't have other product on hand, I tried the salt and vinegar treatment and gave up, finally putting it into the dryer. What I now have is a yardage of purple that I don't see evidence of what I think was a secondary design that essentially washed away! Is this possible that the purple yardage was put through a second process that didn't color set?

toverly

I only wash dark batiks. If it is still bleeding after a few hot water washes, then I use retayne. illinois, it sounds like it covered up the design by bleeding into it. That's a bummer, I have had designs weaken the same way. But at least purple is a great color.

Onebyone

According to a dye professional at the local art center here, Synthrapol removes excess dye from fabrics, not Retayne. [h=1][/h]

vickig626

that's great info. Thanks! Does Retayne have a shelf life? I've had a bottle for several years and only used it on a small project. I have about half a bottle left.

betthequilter

Now that I'm thoroughly confused:

http://www.newpieces.com/weblog/?p=3398

betthequilter

Me, again ....... then I found this. There's also a video ....

http://mansewing.com/wp-content/uplo...synthrapol.pdf