Hello,
I am posting this on behalf of a quilter. The problem is random
bleeding of colour in some quilt blocks that she has already spent a
considerable amount of time working on. She prewashes her fabrics in
cold water with vinegar. This is followed by rinsing. If the colour
runs she continues rinsing until the water runs clear. She has used
this method for many years working with fabrics from a variety of
sources and has never before encountered problems with the dye
bleeding randomly afterwards.
In this instance she used "Easy On" spray starch on a few colours to
facilitate working with small pieces. Then she washed the quilt blocks
in cold water to remove the spray starch. Upon final drying some dye
bled from the cranberry and some similar colours but only in random
areas. There was no correlation with fabrics to which spray starch had
been applied and seemingly no correlation with any other factor (such
as thickness of fabric).
She was able to remove much of the dye bleed by further washing in
cold water but had to take apart some of the blocks to replace areas
that remained stained or to prevent further staining
Does anyone have an explanation for the randomness?
Any suggestions to prevent this from happening again?
Jan Vuori
Senior Textile Conservator
Canadian Conservation Institute
1030 Innes Road
Ottawa Canada K1A 0M5
tel: 613 998-3721
fax: 613 998-4721
www.cci-icc.gc.ca