I ask as i am afraid to wash my finished works as i tried once and managed to make part of the fabric turn yellow and it took me ages to find a frame that would cover my error!
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated :D:D:D
Ideally you'll want to wash things before even working with them if you suspect that colors can bleed. Specially if it's hand dyed. This way you can see how much of the color is lost or if the slight humidity can make part of it bleed into something else.
Sometimes when the case is bad enough even contact with sweat can ruin something. Other times a dark hand dyed thread can bleed into a lighter background out of nowhere, or vice versa. I remember my grandma having some hand dyed kitchen towels with some embroidery and after a while you almost couldn't see the embroidery anymore due to the darker fabric bleeding into it.
If I used hand dyed fabric or floss, I try not to wash the piece because I'm afraid the colors will run. For those, I just try to be clean as possible. For other pieces, I soak it warm water with woolite or just a bit of baby shampoo
I always wash my finished work as the fabric becomes quite dirty. I soak it in lukewarm water with washing powder. I then rinse it in lukewarm water as well and dry it flat.
I tend to wash the majority of my finished works. I will hand wash them in warm water with washing powder and a thorough warm rinse. Then iron whilst still wet face down on a thick towel.
I wash mine as well. I use a gentle detergent - one that is designed for dedicates. Hand wash them in lukewarm water and I roll them in a towel to dry. When they are just damp then I iron them on a low steam setting to get out any remaining creases or wrinkles. I always use a press cloth to iron so that the iron never touches the fabric :-)
I wash my finished pieces in Synthrapol-- it's the same stuff dyers rinse their newly-dyed floss and fabric in. It has something in it that keeps released dye molecules from settling back into the fabric so even if a floss bleeds, it doesn't stain!
You can buy it from any online supplier that sells Jacquard or Procion dyes or from any good art supply store that sells dyes.
I have always used Woolite, it is very gentle & I've never had any problems, it seems to clean my work just fine by swishing it around & letting it soak for awhile.
I was given a piece that was improperly stored and very aged and I thought permanently stained. My friend gave me some liquid for baby's wash and it got all the stains out and it was sweet smelling when done. It was very gentle and the colours didn't bleed. I was very pleased with the end results of this piece.
chekccard
Post time: 2012-8-10 05:41
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