Pre-washing with salt to "lock in" color?

[ladybootlegger]

Okay, I've read every thread in here (that took a while, and I got quite distracted  ), and while I did find a couple threads that talk about pre-washing fabrics. I've heard that washing fabric with salt (although I forget exactly how much) helps to "lock in" the fabric's color/dye.

I am about to start making a new bodice, and I will be making it reversible, black on one side, and maroon on the other. I want to make sure that the colors will not bleed through onto any shirt I decide to wear underneath, or on my skin... in case of rain/sweat/etc.

Has anyone heard of, or better yet, tried this technique? Does it work? Would you recommend it? Or, are there other ways of "locking in" color without pre-washing the fabric numerous times. My fabric is less than a yard for each color, and I'd hate to waste so much water/energy by washing such a small load numerous times.

Thoughts??

[Marietta Graziella]

I've not heard of the "salt wash" to lock in the colors but I use white vinegar.  You don't have to wash it in numerous times, you can soak in a large sink of water and add 1 cup of distilled white vinegar.  Shlosh it around a bit, let soak about 20 minutes, shlosh, soak, shlosh.  Wash in regular cycle.  Should be good to go.

[ladybootlegger]

I assume that the sink should be filled with hot water?

[gem]

Prewashing most fabrics will take care of the potential for bleeding, but I always use one of two things in my pretreating load, either a Shout "Color Catcher," or a product called Retayne. Retayne was recommended to me by my quilt shop, and it's a dye fixative. Now that I'm actually giving this some thought, I'm not sure the Shout product will keep your clothes from transferring dye while you wear them as opposed to just in the wash... but it does work to keep excess dye from getting back on the fabric itself as you wash it, which must help.

Milord had a (purchased) corduroy pirate coat that got red dye on *everything.* So after about five years of that, I finally washed it with Retayne, and it hasn't bled on anything since!

ETA: I tried the vinegar thing when Milord and I received very bright "crayon color" towels for a wedding gift. It did nothing. They still bled. YMMV, of course, but I didn't have any luck with it.

[Butch]

We have used the vinegar method in the past, and it seemed to prolong the color fastness.  Eventually, the garments did fade, but not as quickly as the ones we treated with vinegar.

It sounds like Gem found a real winner with that Retayne product!

[Adriana Rose]

I have used the color fixative from Dharma Trading company, it works great!

[shadowcat546]

Hi.  Yes, the word you're looking for is _mordant_.  Salt, or vinegar (or both salt and vinegar in the washing machine load while doing dye jobs) will help keep the dye from leeching.   A mordant is a substance used to set dyes on fabrics or tissue sections by forming a coordination complex with the dye which then attaches to the fabric.   It may be used for dyeing fabrics.   __..The three methods used for mordanting are:    Pre-mordanting (onchrome): The substrate is treated with the mordant and then dyed.
Meta-mordanting (metachrome): The mordant is added in the dye bath itself. ___Post-mordanting (afterchrome): The dyed material is treated with a mordant.
The type of mordant that is used  changes the shade obtained after dyeing and also affects the fastness property of the dye. 
http://www.fabricstodyefor.com/p-6535-retayne-dye-fixative.aspx

I'm glad this was discussed again.  I believe I'll switch to Retayne, after hearing positive reviews.  ____..Shannon

[ladybootlegger]

Thank you all so much for your input. I'm so excited to work on my bodice, although it looks like it may have to wait while I purchase and this Retayne stuff is shipped. 

Thanks again

[Auryn]

Where do you get the Retayne stuff?

[ladybootlegger]

I also just heard about this Dye Fixative by Rit. Has anyone here heard of or tried it?

[Auryn]

I tried the dye fixative by rit and for me it did not work at all whatsover

[ladybootlegger]

Where do you get the Retayne stuff?

I found a recommendation to try your local quilting store, if not I found the following web site:
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dyesources.shtml#northamerica

[gem]

Quilting stores should have Retayne, but I think it's also available at JoAnn (they carry it on their website, too).

I just re-read the original poster's concerns about wasting water, etc... and wanted to add that you can always pre-wash your fabric with your ordinary laundry (just be cautious/mindful of the possibility of bleeding, etc). So if you have a load of reds, for example, you can throw in the yard of maroon. (You'll probably want to do the Retayne loads by themselves, but for pre-washing small amounts of fabric, this works great. I wanted to do a test wash on the blackwork linen I bought, so yesterday I just threw a swatch in with my normal load of whites.

[Elennare]

I can vouch for the Shout Color Catchers grabbing extra dye in the wash.  To my knowledge, it won't do a thing while you're wearing the garment, but any extra dye that comes off in the wash it will keep from depositing on anything in the washer.  They're great if you're worried about the garment running IN the wash!

[gem]

They're kind of magical, aren't they? I throw them in with everything, and I love fishing them out of the machine after and marveling at what colors they've turned...