[carrieanne]

Yes, when dyeing prefolds synthrapol is a must. You can also add a little soda ash into the wash (basically--wash with synthrapol, do anoither wash throw in some soda ash then another wash tiny bit of synthrapol and hten whatever you need to get all suds out). Try and maybe save some dry soda ash for this if you can. You can get Synthrapol at AC Moore's or Michael's craft stores (they usually carry the Jaquard Procion dyes and then the synthrapol in a little bottle, most likely by the blank tees and stuff).

It is also good to prewash your stuff in a little synthrapol to get rid of residue and stuff from whatever esp if anything is brand new, if your pfs are brand spankin new, it is amazing (especially on UBCPFs!).

You can also use the plastic grocery bags to wrap them in and then just rinse them out to re-use for whatever later on.

I hope i am not too late with some tips to help as well, basically I just backed up everything that kindmomma said, lol! Oh, and also try to keep them in a warmer area, the dye will take much better, you can even set the plastic bags with the tie-dye in them out in the sun to heat them up, procion dyes work best at above 72 F, I sometimes set the oven on Warm and put all my tie dye in there in a big cardboard tray I made out of a box with one tall side (keeps the heat in there) and it works wonderfully, esp since the AC is on in this TX heat and we have a big huge wasp nest outside--yikes!
Okay, enough babbling form me, lol! Sorry

 

[carrieanne]

Quote:

I dyed my new cpfs and they are GORGEOUS - the colors are quite vibrant - and the only color I have transferring is the blue - which is the darkest - so I think maybe I just did a blue dye overload and it needed to be washed a couple more times - to make sure all of the excess dye is out.

Yes, blue seems to be a major bleeding culprit. Twice I have had problems with other peoples pf's bleeding even though I did everything "right", it was blue both times. I have found that adding some of the soda ash to a wash after an initial synthrapol wash really really helps and makes them not bleed. They may transfer onto something else sitting in a pail together or even if you don't take them out of the washer right away but when that happens, it almost always comes out in a regular wash. Good idea to keep them seperate, at least for a while. I have not had this problem with the pf's I dyed for my son but at this point they are about 8 mos old and are pretty well worn and have been washed MANY times, lol! But in the beginning, if I had had any precious sweet dipes like I do now, they would have been done seperately just in case.

And yes, Scarlet has a great suggestion. Everything I dye is hand rinsed in cold water then gradually warmer til it's hot then it gets put in the washer with hot water and synthrapol. It helps a lot as well.