Message: I am hoping you can help me.  I accidentally spilled a few drops of oil onto a 100% cotton sofa from Pottery Barn.  As I attempted to clean the spots, the red dye started to come out of the fabric.  I stopped immediately, but now I not only have a couple of dark oil spots, but a slightly lighter red area surrounding them. Is there something I can do to replace the color removed from washing? What if I spill something in the future? 

I wish I had some helpful advice to offer, but I don't. It's generally impossible to fill in the color that is missing in cases like this. You will not be able to do it by dyeing the sofa (dye would take unevenly because of the oil, anyway). The closest I can come is the suggestion on my page for bleach spots, "How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?", which is to try a marker, either a fabric marker or a permanent marker. Unfortunately, the edges will never come out right, as the color overlaps the unstained portions, resulting in a darker color. This works only to reduce the visibility of the spot, not to get rid of it altogether.

It's very unfortunate that the dye used in the upholstery of your sofa turned out not to be bonded to the fabric, but instead readily dissolved in oil. That would never happen with a properly applied fiber reactive dye, but unfortunately the type of dye used in your sofa was not bound fast to the fiber. If this were an article of clothing, I would certainly recommend that you return it to the store, since clothing is defective if it cannot be cleaned without its dye running. I don't know if the same is true of a sofa. Please call the customer service department at Pottery Barn to see if they will replace the sofa.

The best solution, if you cannot get the sofa replaced, would be to have the sofa reupholstered, or to get custom-made slipcovers that fit the sofa. If money is tight, consider buying a book (or checking the library) on the subject of how to do your own furniture upholstery. I am sure that if you take on the project of reupholstering your sofa, you will prewash the fabric to make sure that it, unlike the original fabric, is ready to face the challenges that furniture is likely to face. You will probably also use a stain-resistant treatment of some sort.

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