How to Make Clothes Colorfast

Make your clothing colorfast to prevent the color from bleeding in the wash.

Clothing items that are not colorfast cause a big headache when worn and washed. Dyes can rub off onto your skin or upholstery and will permanently stain other clothes if laundered together. To prevent color loss and color transfer from your noncolorfast clothes, follow these instructions to set the color before first wear and first wash.

Things You'll Need

• Large bucket or top loading washing machine
• Retayne solution
• Sythrapol solution

Instructions

1. Place the garment you wish to make colorfast into a large bucket or top-loading washing machine.

2. Fill the bucket or washing machine with enough hot water to submerge the clothing article.

3. Add 1 tsp. of the retayne solution for each yard of fabric. A blouse or skirt will only require 1 tsp. while a longer dress might require 2 tsp. It is okay to estimate the yardage. Agitate the garment to mix the solution into the water and around the clothing. Allow the garment to soak for 30 minutes. The retayne solution works by fixing the dye in the fabric.

4. Rinse the garment in clean water. Once the rinse water runs clear, launder it in a top loading washing machine with ¼ cup of the synthrapol solution in hot water. Synthrapol is responsible for binding with excess dye molecules that are unable to bond to the fabric so that the dye will run off with the rinse water.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have a front-loading washing machine, use a bucket for soaking and launder the garment with only 1/8 cup of synthrapol.

• If the garment is silk or wool, use cool or warm water instead of hot.

References

• Dharma Trading Co.: Retayne
• Jacquard: Jacquard Synthrapol
• Dharma Trading Co: Dharma Professional Textile Detergent

Resources

• University of Kentucky: Stain Removal for Washable Fabrics; Bette Jo Dedic