How To Treat A Blanket To Keep It From Color Bleeding

Howdy friends! Today we're discussing the sad topic of fabric bleed. It'south happened to the all-time of us and I'm sharing my tips on how to preclude it and how to fix it if it happens to y'all!

Watch my video on how I fixed my Winterberry quilt and restored it back to white!

Let'southward start off by talking virtually how we tin prevent this travesty from happening.

Prevention Tips:

Tip #1: Pre-launder your fabrics. If you have a questionable fabric on mitt (reds, browns, navy's I'm talking to you lot) y'all may want to pre-wash it. This will release any residue dye that might otherwise exist absorbed into your finished quilt, and possibly save yous a lot of heartache in the end. Go along in mind that pre-washing will likewise cause your fabric to compress a bit, then you'll also desire to pre-wash the other fabrics yous're planning to utilize in your projection, I just wouldn't pre-wash them together if yous become my migrate.

Now I have to confess that I NEVER pre-wash my cloth for quilting because I adopt how it feels straight off of the commodities. Information technology's prissy and smooth and I just feel similar information technology's easier to become crisp accurate cuts. I guess I only like living on the edge. So I hateful, you exercise you.

Tip #2: Purchase quality materials. While I normally purchase quilting fabric, I decided to salve a few bucks on my Winterberry quilt. I needed some solid textile and and so I purchased a fairly inexpensive solid cherry-red from a big box store, which shall remain unnamed. I saved well-nigh $10-$15. I practice NOT recommend this, I would gladly accept paid a few more dollars and so that my quilt remained beautiful and white. Instead I ended up crying over my bathtub one night as I watched the hot pink water swirl all around my beloved quilt.

So take it from me, buy decent quality fabrics. I've never had a quilt bleed like this earlier, and I always practice high contrast quilts typically with a white background. So, learn from my mistakes and save yourself and your quilt.

Tip #3: Wash your quilts in cool water and always include a color catcher if they are high contrast similar mine. This method has worked for me for years and I've literally never had a quilt bleed before! But then again, I always buy better quality quilting textile, except this time….sigh…, and obviously the drain that came out of this lower quality textile was simply too much for my poor piffling color catcher to handle.

Now let's talk most how to gear up fabric that has bled.

I'thousand in the "no quilt left backside" camp. Then when I pulled my red and white Winterberry quilt out of the launder and saw all of the horrific hot pink splotches all over my white fabric, I did what any normal person would practise and I cried. After that I got mad. And after that I got determined. And let'southward merely say I wasn't about to give up on her! I immediately did some research and institute a method that I call up worked quite well.

I recommend doing this process in your bath tub. Yous're going to need a LOT of water, and your washing machine simply tin't handle that. Then forgo your spa fourth dimension and surrender your tub, your quilt needs it more than you practice!

Step one: Make full a bathtub with HOT water. Commonly I avoid hot water on my quilts, however in this example nosotros actually Want the fabric dye to release from the quilt.
Step 2: Dissolve about 1 cup of Dawn Dish Soap. I adopt ultra pure, just I was out, so I but used the regular kind.
Pace iii: Completely submerge your quilt and swish information technology around. A LOT.
Stride 4: Permit your quilt soak for 10-12 hours, or overnight.
Footstep 5: Rinse and repeat steps 1-4 until the water runs clear. Mine took nigh 5 soak cycles.
Step six: Use Synthrapol if the dawn isn't doing the trick!
Step 7: Wash in cool water on gentle cycle and tumble dry depression.

Unfortunately I was and then distraught that I didn't take a picture of my quilt at the get-go of this process. But only imagine a bunch of horrible hot pink splotches all over my lovely white. Here'south a picture of my quilt afterward the start soak, as y'all can come across the white fabric is very pink, but the first soak did get rid of the hot pink splotches, and then that gave me hope.

I mean but expect at all of the dye that came out in during the kickoff soak. I can't even believe it!

I mean seriously.

That water is and so pink, I but can't even.

But with each soak it got lighter and lighter and so did my white groundwork textile. Interestingly plenty, the white faux fur I used on the backing didn't take the dye at all. It stayed super white throughout this process.

Just continue at it, remember all of that hard work you put into your quilt. Don't allow all of that go to waste, get in in that location and do your part to save her! After all she deserves to shine!

And here is my quilt afterward near five soaking cycles. I kept at it until my h2o ran clear and and so did a couple more for good measure out. I also did 2 rinses that were just evidently water to help get some of the lather out earlier putting it back into my machine.

Hither's an upward close moving-picture show, you can see the pink splotches are mostly gone, and the groundwork fabric is back to a prissy creamy white.

And that's information technology friends! Merely a trivial flake of time, nearly three days, and some difficult work swishing and swirling my quilt in the bathtub, and thankfully that pesky pink was gone! I was so happy to see that the dawn actually did the pull a fast one on. My quilt does have a very slight pink tint to the white if you await very close, merely information technology is 1000 times better than when I started!

And I'm so happy that all of that difficult work I put into my quilt wasn't wasted on cheap fabric. Now, I know I've actually harped on the "cheap" fabric bit, merely I practise want to say that I take heard of higher quality fabrics haemorrhage as well. I've never had that happen with my fabrics, but I still recollect that a little prevention volition go a long style to keeping your quilts happy and the correct color. And past right color, I mean white. Because that's pretty much what I apply for all of my backgrounds, and I desire my whites to stay that way.

Then those are my tips for preventing and fixing material drain. I promise they've helped y'all out, and remember, don't surrender on your quilt! Merely a picayune bit of honey tin salvage even the pinkest of bleeds!