[MyLittleWonders]

Ugh ... I had great directions for vat dyeing, followed them very closely, have some beautiful, bright, vibrant fushia pink cpf's, but after the whole soda ash routine and then a wash in synthropol and then detergent and then doing it all over again, I'm still getting slight bleeds. Ds now has two very pale pink cpfs! :LOL Any idea how many times I'll have to wash them to get them colorfast? THey are gorgeous and would love to put them up for sale or give them to my two girl friends who cd their girls, but would hate to ruin someone's stash in the wash!

I'm telling you ... I'm tie dyeing and vat dyeing impaired! (I'll stick to the sewing and knitting from now on maybe.)

 

[pritchettzoo]

I am a complete novice myself (and trying to get some RED prefolds to stop bleeding), but here's what the dyeing "expert" at Earth Guild suggested to me--she suggested using some Dawn in hot water to strip away the unbonded dye molecules. (Now I could be getting some of this wrong because I haven't thought about molecules since, oh, Bio 101 in 1994, but it made sense at the time!) She said the dye creates molecules that want to bind to the fabric. In a super-saturated solution such as a dye bath and in a thick fabric like a prefold, there will be unbonded dye molecules hanging about even after you rinse and wash. Hot water and a harsh detergent like Dawn can strip some of those excess molecules away. She also suggested leaving the article in the dye bath for as long as possible--even overnight--to give more molecules a chance to bind on to something.

I haven't had a chance to try, but she seemed to know what she was talking about. At any rate, I don't think Dawn would hurt anything!

HTH!

 

[jmreinke]

You just have to keep rinsing until the water runs clear. Takes forever, I know, but once the water in the washing machine is clear, all the extra dye should be gone. At least that is what I do, and I haven't had any problems.

HTH!

 

[ma2maya]

Yeah to what the first to posts said. Prefolds by nature are thirsty creatures(good thing for what they are made for!) Even if you left them in the dye bath over night(which couldn't hurt btw) you would still have to do more rinsing than you would if you were dyeing a piece of cotton muslin or silk. Use the synthaprol, it will make your rinse wahses more efficient.
Good Luck!
Kathy

 

[Janessa]

this is what I do for rinsing. Start rinsing on cool/cold water when water starts to run clear start increasing the temp of water until its as hot as my hands can stand rinse till it runs clear/almost clear. Then run the water hot hot and let the dyed object sit in the hot hot water for an hour, rise one more time usually the water runs clear pretty quickly. Then do a hot wash with synthrapol (sp??) I have never had any bleeding even with some of the more difficult colors using this method.
hth
Janessa