Ok, so I am not a prewasher. And the unthinkable has happened, thankfully to one of my own quilts.
I was spritzing the top to get out my quilting marks, and 2 of my many deep purple grapes bled onto the white background. Considering that I got out aqua permanent Sharpie from my Italian floor quilt, I have not really started to panic.
But this is a problem. I need to do 2 things. First, get the bleed out. Then second, set the fabrics so there won't be more bleeding. I have to wet the entire quilt eventually to block it afterall. I have read about Synthropol as being good to pretreat fabrics with. It will keep the dyes suspended in water, rather than allowing them to settle into the fibers. I also read about Retayne, which would have been a good think to wash the fabrics in initially, as it sets colors. I don't want to use it now until the bleed areas are gone. I guess.
All I have done so far is coat the affected areas with my Tide to Go pen. I need to pick up some color catchers.
Please, if you have suggestions of what I should do please tell me and explain why your solution is the best approach.
Back to prewashing...Do you prewash? Seems more and more people do not. With the advent of fat quarters, who wants to wash these small pieces of fabric that just turn into a mass of ravels??
...deep sigh...
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12 comments:
No Not a prewasher either, all that extra work, when all I want to do is just get sewing! I hope it all works out, sorry for not having any suggestions.
I pre-wash everything -- once in a while I'll skip something light-colored if I'm in a hurry, but always, always the dark stuff gets washed or at least soaked in hot water a few times! And even with that, I've occasionally had a mishap with a renegade batik that refuses to stop bleeding. I'd try the synthrapol first... good luck!
I'm one of the pre-washers. Always. I like to remove all the surface dirt, manufacturing chemicals, sizing and excess dye. I use "Shout" sheets to pick up the excess dye. Sometimes I wash twice, depending on how much dye the Shout sheet picked up.
I do have Retayne but mostly I have found the Shout sheets work very nicely. I'll use the Retayne if the fabric just keeps on bleeding.
This just happened to me but with red on white fabric (didn't prewash) A friend suggested I wash with a few color catchers and use Oxy 10 or that oxy laundry booster. it worked. But I was real nervous since it had already been accepted to a quilt show.
The machine quilter I learned from, Julie y. Lambert, says to wash in Biz if you have color migration, however, she has one quilt that it didn't work on. Good luck. I have always been a prewasher, however, the quilt I am quilting now is red and white and I didn't. Wish me luck.
Carolyn
Yes I always pre wash every piece I get even Fat Quarters, but I zigzag before washing to elimate raveling
Yes I prewash every piece even Fat Quarters. But I also zigzag before washing to elimate raveling.
I'm definitely a pre-washer, especially when I'm using really dark/bright colors with whites or pale colors. I'm always concerned about the fabrics bleeding, but more importantly, I know the manufacturers use a ton of chemicals on the fabrics when they are produced. Each time the needle pokes through the fabric, it disturbs the chemicals and you breath in those chemicals.
I know someone who used to work for a fabric manufacturer and one of the chemicals used is a derivative of chloroform. Her hands would actually get numb throughout the day due to the interaction with the chemical.
I am a pre-washer. Allergies, you know. Plus dyes bleeding. I have a red cotton t-shirt that I love to wear, but it still bleeds and it has been washed over and over. When I wear that shirt, the rest of the week is some form of red for shirts because I like to do more than one shirt at a time in the washer. Good luck getting it out.
WV: ratene (is this a variation of Retayne?)
It's not just that dye migrates. The other factor is whether other fabrics pick it up. I usually pre-wash, but not always. Sometimes stuff will bleed even when it has been pre-washed. I have a quilt where I pre-washed a hand-dyed border fabric. When I washed the quilt, that fabric bled again. Some of the light-colored, scrappy background squares picked up the dye and washing again did not remove it. All those fabrics were the same brand. If I'm washing a quilt that is a mix if washed and not washed fabrics, I will use sythrapol or shout color catchers next time.
I used to prewash, but haven't for a long time. Last fall I had an orange batik backing that bled through to the quilt top when I sprayed water on it to remove blue marker. It was horrendous! I threw it in the wash with some Oxy Clean and color catchers...removed all the orange. Like it was never there.
I pre-wash everything too. The only times that I don't is if I bought some fabrics to make an art doll. But once that project is done I'll take the leftover fabric and throw in the next fabric wash before folding it to go in the stash. That way I know that any fabric in the drawers are pre-washed. Then I use Mary Ellen's Best Press when sewing to get back some of the stiffness of new fabric.
I hope that you get the bleed out. Let us know how it works out.
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