I just bought some Indian plaid to make a shirt. It says wash cold on delicate. Are there any further precautions I should take with this? Are there any products that will help dyes remain "fast"?
If hand washing, what is an effective or efficient way to rinse? In the shower?
I don't think this is bleeding Madras. I just don't trust the quality of Indian dyes. The color now is very luscious. I'd like to keep it that way. I guess I should be washing all my shirts on delicate. Ever since I started making my own, I have been washing in cold water, but not delicate cycles. I'm not concerned as much about it bleeding onto other fabrics, just keeping its color.
For some reason, using vinegar is creeping around in my mind.
I've used Retayne several times with red fabrics that kept bleeding after washing and multiple rinses. It really does work. Instructions are to fill the washing machine with enough hot (140 degrees F) water to cover the fabric, add one teaspoon Retayne for each yard of cotton material, and wash for 20 minutes...not sure how I'm going to manage that in the future, since we got a front loader.
Don't bother, it's just a waste of good vinegar. Plug this URL:
into the Wayback Machine at:
and click on one of the dates it brings up... you'll get Nebraska Cooperative Extension NF91-44 "Ineffectiveness of Home Remedy Dye Setting Treatments" that will tell you about a series of tests done with various fabrics and treatments.
Alas, UNL is redoing their extension pubs, so the Wayback Machine is the only way to find it on the net at the moment.
Basically, the problem is that excess dye left in fabrics (often the only way to get really vibrant, deep colors) can come off in cleaning (wet deposition) or by crocking (dry deposition). If you've ever had your legs turn blue after wearing new jeans, you've seen crocking. In some cases, I've seen fabrics crock onto the sewing machine bed as they're being sewn. And to add insult to injury, sometimes that crocking is permanent!
Retayne is a possibility... it works by swelling dye molecules still in the fiber but loosely attached so they're harder to wash out. Harder to wash out. Not impossible.
My suggestion is you toss a sample of your fabric in the washer with your jeans or dark towels or something else that will hide evidence of having picked up colors from the scrap, and wash as usual. And then with every load after that for awhile. If you don't like the result, you can use the fabric for another project.
Ah! Thank-you for that new technical term. I've had 3 fabrics stain the bed of the machine - now I know what to call it in addition to the swear words I used!
2 out of 3 fabrics were the polyester slinky fake suede stuff - colour everywhere! Including on my parents wall paper where the finished curtains are hanging........
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