This beautiful 1930′s Rose Applique quilt belongs to my friend Julie.
The quilt had been badly soiled before it came into Julie’s possession. I convinced her that cleaning it up a bit would add to the quilt’s value. It never occured to me that pink dye would run.
Julie just soaked the quilt in cold water and dryed it. The resulting big pink blotches on the white fabric were an awful surprise. I brought the quilt home and tried everything in my bag of tricks to get the pink dye out, but nothing worked.
First, I washed it in synthrapol and cold water. This made no difference at all.
Then, I applied the synthrapol directly to the spots using a small sponge and soaked the quilt in cold water over night. This helped a little, but not enough to repeat the process in hopes of getting out more dye.
Then, I made a paste of “Oxy-Clean” and lemon juice and applied to directly to the spots. I let that set for about an hour and then soaked the whole quilt over night again in cold water. This helped some, but not enough to risk damaging the fabric any further by trying again.
I really wish I had kept my mouth shut.
I did not take any ‘before’ shots. Here are some closeups of a few of the pink spots taken this morning. There are still several spots all over the front of the quilt.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I am concerned that any further treatments could damage the fabrics. They are over 80 years old.
You’ve run through everything I can think of. I’m really sorry.
Liz
Ginia – I had that problem with the “wedding quilt” I made for my nephew. After I had washed and dried it, I saw that some of the red from the roses had run onto the white dress. Since mine was a small area to remove the color from, I didn’t want to put the whole quilt in synthropol and not know how it would come out. I read all of the sources I could find on the internet about how to remove run-on colors from fabric. One source (I wish I had bookmarked the page) said that the reason synthropol worked is the HOT water. I took a deep breath and boiled up water in the teakettle. I had John hold the quilt so I could control where the water went. Then I poured HOT water only on the spot , catching the run off water in a basin so I could see if I actually removed dye. I kept pouring until the fabric looked white. It took a lot of hot water, but IT WORKED! Plain HOT water poured over the spot. I remember my grandma used this “trick” to remove fruit juice stains from cloth . This might be worth a try in a specific spot on the quilt. Contact me if you have questions or want a demo. – Kathy
Kathy;
Thanks for the idea. The blotches are all over the quilt, so I would have to submerge the whole thing. If the quilt were new, I would not hesitate, but it is a real 1930′s quilt, so I am worried about damaging the fabric. I could try it on one spot first and see what happens. I’ll have to talk it over with Julie. Thanks again.
Hi Ginia,
I’m behind on opening my email. Did you resolve this. What if you made a paste of white dye and cornstarch and laid it on the stains. Did you check with Michigan State U? Good luck.
Fran