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I guess I either should have been smart enough to know this automatically or perhaps I should have researched what I did before doing it. Perhaps it's written down somewhere. Whatever the case, I just ruined a Primitive Betty's pinkeep in which I invested several hours by deciding to make it more primitive by spraying tea on it & popping it into the oven to slowly dry. As soon as I finished spraying tea on the other pinkeeps I was primming up, all stitched with DMC by the way, I came back to place them on the cookie sheet & this is what I saw ...





I thought I was being oh so clever by using WDW floss for this project, especially the skein named Peacock. What better floss to choose for stitching a peacock! I have no idea why that one ran but the Pea Coat used in the lettering & the Loden used in the body of the peacock stayed put.

I guess this will just be a sad learning experience for me

Blessings,
Shirlee
http://farmhouseponderings.blogspot.com/" target="_blank

All may not be lost. I recently had a similar problem with my daughter's Christmas stocking after our basement flooded (there's a long post about it in the general section where I asked for advice on saving it). I've not completely gotten the colors out, but I've had a lot of success by soaking it in cool water with Oxi Clean and some Shout Color Catchers. After about 6 hours of soaking, I've gotten most of the red color out. I may try another round on Monday when the kiddo is in school.

Hope that helps.

mechie

Mechie ... Thank you for the possible fix but since I've already baked it in (figured it was a goner ... don't know why I bothered to put it in the oven with the others) I kind of have the idea that the running colors are set in I will give it a try though & see if it helps.

Blessings,
Shirlee
http://farmhouseponderings.blogspot.com/" target="_blank

Sorry, I missed the part about you putting it in the oven (had little ones screaming in the background). Maybe if the temp was low enough it won't be baked in yet. Hope you have some success.

mechie

I know this doesn't help you now, but perhaps in the future it will.

Despite DMC being colourfast, reds and sometimes rich blues can still bleed. The same can be said for other brands or hand-dyed flosses. If you're washing a finished piece, use cold water with a bit of vinegar (about 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water) to soak the piece in first. Vinegar acts as a fixative, preventing bleeding and stopping dye from setting on new surfaces.

In your case, since you were trying to do a tea wash after the piece was finished (I think that's how I understood it), you WANTED the tea to set in the floss and fabric, so a couple of experiments to try would be:

Stain the fabric and the floss separately before you begin your project, doing a cold water and vinegar soak (rinsing with cold water when finished) after you've stained them.

Or, soak the floss in cold water and vinegar (rinse afterward with cold water), then stitch your project. When finished, tea stain the project, and your floss really shouldn't bleed -- although it likely won't pick up as much of the tea stain as the fabric will.

Good luck in future projects.

I don't want to sound ignorant or anything, but what is Weeks Dye Works?

JA Fan wrote:I don't want to sound ignorant or anything, but what is Weeks Dye Works?

Weeks Dye Works is an American thread brand that specializes in overdyed threads as well as other things. I love them!

Weeks Dye Works is an American thread brand that specializes in overdyed threads as well as other things. I love them![/quote]

Thank-you for the prompt reply and for the link, Amanda. I could have googled WDW's myself, I admit that, but I got confused by the mention of DMC's.
I guess I'm having a "senior moment."

because it's just the blue, which is meant to be vibrant I actually don't think it looks too bad. I might have even done something like that deliberately because it gives the feathers a feathery sort of feel IMHO.

How about putting a blue colour wash on the whole background? Make it look deliberate? I think that would look wonderful!


Weeks Dye Works threads were previously not colour fast, but the new ones are. You do need to look at the back of the hanger, though, to be sure.

OOPs, some how I got the wrong quote. Oh well, it's probably ok.