Name: Emma

Message: Hi, I have a problem with the first batch of nappies I made - I think that I have not washed the dyed part of the fabric correctly to clear all unattached dyes before constructing the nappies. The outer layer, and the top of 2 pop in boosters, has been tie dyed on a cotton/hemp fleece in kelly green and yellow procion RX dye. I also hadn't realised at this point that the hemp needed scouring to really take up the dye. The inner fabric is a bamboo velour. I have had a customer who has prewashed the nappy, and a little of the dye has transferred into the velour - giving a slight blue colour which runs around the edges of where the boosters were lying inside the nappy. Is there an way of removing this blue? The nappy has also been handpainted using jaquard neopaque and lumiere paints, which appear to be fixed OK. I was wondering about sending her some synthrapol, but wasnt sure if this might help, or whether it would affect the outer dye and the fabric paint?
Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me.

Washing the nappies in very hot water, twice, should do the trick. This should remove the dye that has bled. Further explanation:

When you dye with Procion MX dyes, a certain amount of the dye always fails to completely attach. You have to wash out the excess unattached dye with hot water at least 60°C (140°F); often you need to soak in hot water, or wash in hot water twice. Water that is hotter than 60°C is even more efficient at washing out the excess unattached dye.

Synthrapol is not really necessary for getting all of the dye out. Really HOT water is much more important than Synthrapol. Synthrapol should do no harm, however, either to the properly attached dye or to the fabric paint.

If all of the dye in the cotton/hemp fleece had fully reacted with either the fabric or the water (some of the dye always reacts with the water), then enough washing with hot water will be sufficient to remove the excess which has bled onto another part of the garment.

However, if you did not allow the dye enough time to react, so that some active dye was still present at the time of washout, there is always the fear that permanent backstaining will occur. This happens if the dye is able to react with the fabric after it has transferred to a different area. I believe that this is unlikely in your case. When this does happen, there is no good solution.

The best way to avoid backstaining with still-active dye is to allow the dye reaction with the fabric to go for longer than necessary. For example, if your dye reaction should be complete after four to six hours at 21°C (70°F), then leaving it overnight allows plenty of time to make sure that all of the dye has reacted, whether with the fabric or the remaining moisture. (Warmer temperatures take less time.)

After your dye has reacted fully, it takes some effort to get all of the excess unattached dye out. The best way to do this is with the hottest water you have available. Always do one initial washing-out in cool water, to remove all auxiliary chemicals, such as the soda ash you use to set the dye, and only afterwards use warm or hot water to wash out the dye. To save water, you can soak your fabric in the hot water for some time before draining it. If you have hard water, use a water softener; if you don't have a household water softener but need one, add sodium hexametaphosphate (your dye seller should have this, called Water Softener or Metaphos or Calgon T).

You can test your hand-dyed fabric before you sew it into a garment, so that you will be able to be sure that dye transfer will not occur. To do this, get two clean white rags, either both cotton, or, ideally, one cotton and one wool. Dampen your hand-dyed fabric, and place it between the two cloths. Using a hot clothes iron, press until the fabric is dry. If any dye transfer occurs, then you have not completed the washout of the excess unattached dyes, and must wash your fabric again in very hot water, before using it to sew. This test is commonly performed by quilters, whose work will be ruined if they use fabric that bleeds in the laundry for their quilts.

The heat in the hot water will not damage the fabric paint, including Lumiere and Neopaque, but there is a problem to beware of when washing garments painted with fabric paint. The physical abrasion of laundering can cause them to wear off. When possible, fabric-painted garments should be turned inside out, or placed in a net bag, in the laundry. Top-loading washing machines tend to be more hard on fabric than front-loading washing machines, but this may not always the case. Another way to help prolong the life of frequently-laundered clothing that is decorated with fabric paint is to place the items in a net lingerie bag before putting them into the washing machine or dryer.

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