Sensational Strippers Exchange

[Roseanne M.]

eeeekkkkk..... I'm going to play it safe and soak all my strips in warm water, bag them in a pillowcase and dry in the clothes dryer. I prefer to wash and then cut to prevent fraying but that's not an option here.

[Hannelore N.]

I'm often too lazy to pre-wash fabrics, but I always throw a few "Colour-Catcher" sheets in the washing machine when a finished quilt gets its first wash. Most times the sheets are still white after the wash, but sometimes they have turned a little pink or grey. So far I have never had any 'bleeding' with this method.

[Hannelore N.]

I use the 'Colour-Catchers' and haven't had any problems with bleeding on the quilts.

[Hannelore N.]

I pre-washed all of my batiks before cutting stips. I thought we were supposed to pre-wash. I guess I assumed this since the instructions for the batiks-r-us HST exchange required pre-washing. Guess I will be washing stips when they arrive.

Judy
Lovelady, TX

[Hannelore N.]

FYI...I recently made a large batik quilt and in the process of 'fixing' a quilting mistake, I sprayed part of it with water. It bled. After binding, I washed the quilt in Synthrapol with a color catcher. The color catcher came out dark greenish-blue, and my quilt ended up with dye marks throughout it. I tried 'fixing' that by using a color-run remover (which I later discovered is not good on 'fabrics which bleed on themselves'. This severely aged my quilt, washed out a huge amount of color from all of the batiks, left the light areas either grossly faded or splotched with color, and dyed my peach-colored non-batik to a pale green....it was a very disappointing experience. NOW, I wash my batiks well!!! I sent in my strips BEFORE I learned this lesson, so BE SURE TO WASH!!! And, I've since heard that RETAYNE is the best thing to wash them in! Oh, after my experience, I washed even some 2" strips I had for another project. They hardly unraveled at all, and I was still able to use them as 2" strips.

[Hannelore N.]

With good quality batiks I never have had a problem

[Hannelore N.]

What is Retayne and where would I purchase it ??? I'm getting a bit nervous about washing all the stips plus the other 2 exchanges??!!
Thanks and good luck, Mona 80

[Margo C.]

Read about Retayne here: http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1981-AA.shtml
Read about Synthrapol here: http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/2127-AA.shtml

Read about when to use which one here: http://www.prochemicalanddye.com/store/home.php?cat=323

If your local quilt shop doesn't have these detergents you might suggest that they carry them or at least order some for you.
We need to support our local quilt shops or they will go out of business!

[Margo C.]

Thanks for the info Margo. I'll be going to my LQS first thing in the morning. Mona 80

[Margo C.]

yes, Thanks Margo. Great info! I wish I'd had it a month ago!

[Margo C.]

I have very little experience using batiks, but I do usually prewash my fabrics and have luckily never experienced a problem with a quilt bleeding. (Knock on wood.) So, here's a question for those of you who plan to prewash their batik strips before piecing their quilt tops. Will you separate your strips by color and wash each color group separately? If not, then what's the difference between washing them before or after piecing, unless you plan to add some light colored non-batiks to your quilts?

[Margo C.]

I will wash them separately in color groups. I'll have bowls of fabric all around my kitchen for a few days. I will put like colors together and I just KNOW that I'll find some bleeders, especially the reds and now I fear the yellows after seeing that bowl from a previous post..

[Margo C.]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Batiks are not the only fabrics that bleed! Check this out from one of my 2009 tutorials:
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/570305305PZwEyD

As I was ironing the starched fabrics dry I realized that I had two fabrics that were bleeding. Because I haven’t pre-washed a lot of my stash, I’m always watching for bleeders. Which of these fabrics do you think would be a problem?



I’ll bet you may have guessed the one with red, but would you have guessed the lightest green? Those two middle fabrics were BAD! I soaked them for a couple of hours in warm water with a couple of drops of SYNTHRAPOL (available at your LQS or on-line from the Dharma Trading Company). The white bowls allow me to see if a fabric is bleeding, and these definitely are! After a thorough rinse, I re-starched them, and they were both fine. I will use them now and not worry. If they were still bleeding, I would have washed them in RETAYNE, and checked again for bleeding.

[Barbara A.]

I recently purchased a pair of black jeans (96% cotton, 4% spandex) and a pair of dark jeans (80% cotton, 19% polyester, 1% spandex). Rubbing a white piece of paper on both of these items, showed dark dye residue on the white paper. One sales person suggested pre-washing and another suggested soaking in vinegar in addition to pre-washing. Both are intended to set the dye and prevent further fading of the fabric.

A light bulb went off in my mind. For years I have made pysanky (ukranian easter eggs) and always added vinegar to the dyes. I am not familiar with RETAYNE or SYNTHROPOL, thanks Margo, for the links to learn about these products. I am curious to know if vinegar is part of their formula, but doubt that this information is available to the public. Is there any information of the packaging indicating the contents? Does the type of dye dictate how to "permanently" set the color? Are there any chemists out there that can explain more about the use of vinegar as a setting agent?

Yes, in case you were wondering, I did soak both pair of jeans in vinegar (lots) & water before pre-washing but have no history of future fading from additional washings. They both shrank more than anticipated and we all know how that goes! Good, but expensive, motivation to deal with the continual body monitoring process, if you know what I mean.

[Barbara A.]

I like that - 'continual body monitoring process'. I also subscribe to the vinegar to prevent bleeding process. I don't rmember where I heard it and I'm not even sure it does anything. Vinegar is one of those basic products that has a lot of uses.