Does batik fabric from India need to be washed before I use it in a quilt top?

Name: Loretta

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Message: Does batik fabric from India need to be washed before I use it in a quilt top?

I wouldn't use any fabric in a quilt top without washing it first, unless the design is such that it won't matter at all if the colors run from one piece of fabric to another. At this point, you have no idea whether the dye in this fabric will run badly or not. A real batik will certainly have less of a tendency to run than others, if the boiling method was used to remove the batik wax and if fiber reactive dyes were used, but you might have a printed faux batik, instead.

In fact, if you're piecing any fabric into a complex quilt top, instead of just using the whole fabric for the quilt top, I wouldn't use it without testing it. To test dyed fabric for washfastness, dampen it, place it between two white cloths, and then iron it dry with a hot iron. If color transfers to the white fabric during this test, you know there's a problem that you'll need to fix, either by repeated washing in hot water, or by using a commercial cationic dye fixative, such as Retayne, or both. (See my page on "Commercial Dye Fixatives".)

Even for an unpieced quilt with a backing of the same color, you should pre-wash the fabric, I think, if only to pre-shrink it. I imagine that a whole cloth quilt, made without piecing at all, would get weirdly puckered later, if it shrinks after quilting. I would wash the fabric in hot water to be sure that it is pre-shrunk.

Not all dyes respond to Retayne and other commercial dye fixatives. The fixatives do not work on a particular type of dye known as vat dyes, including indigo. Most non-washfast dyed fabric from India seems to be made with another type of dye, known as direct dye, however. Direct dye responds well to Retayne, becoming considerably more washfast after treatment.

Sometimes you hear that the dyer's detergent Synthrapol will set the dye in fabric. Unfortunately, this is not true. Synthrapol is an excellent detergent, ideal for removing excess dye since it is pH-neutral and free of optical brighteners and fragrance, but it has no magical dye-setting properties. Using very hot water, even without a detergent, is more effective for dye removal than using Synthrapol in cooler water. (See my page, "What is Synthrapol?".)

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Posted: Monday - June 06, 2011 at 09:11 AM

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Does batik fabric from India need to be washed before I use it in a quilt top?

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