Christi:
I wish you all the success, whether you find an old Maytag set, or find something new that behaves like it or even if you find a new HE set that makes you happy.
I understand, I truly do. Being able to do something that others think of a "chore" as a relaxation/meditation is priceless. For decades I did not understand *why* people hated laundry until I was put in situations (apartment buildings, for example, with "shared" laundry equipment/laundromats) that made me anxious just by thinking about having to do laundry.
So happy that's over for me!
As for hot water and dye transfer/bleed etc. I do suggest that you do some reading in the Dharma Trading website about how to hand dye some fabric. There are multiple slightly different processes, like tie dye, batik, yardage dyeing etc.
See what they tell you and how you feel about it.
I have not actually dyed anything but the couple of times I tie-dyed something or helped overdye gray pants ultra-black for a community theatre group we hang out with.
Once I started washing all my *new* clothes in the same way they tell you to finish dyeing a garment, they started lasting *much* longer.
What I do: *very* quick rinse, a minute or two in cold water in a tub. Swish the garment with similar colors around, squeeze as much water you can without deforming the garments. Fill the tub with warm water, rinse the clothes for 5 minutes or less. Both these rinses are to remove unreacted/unnattached excess dyes -- the dyes can in fact attach themselves to say, a white fabric and that's why you want to remove as much as possible, but you don't want to spend so long that you start removing dyes that *have* reacted but not *fixed* to the fabric.
That's what you do next: 140F water and TOL detergent, it doesn't have to be a long wash, a short wash and through multiple rinses will do fine. If you can't get 140F water, get as close as you can. That should finish the process.
If you can't get your hands on TOL detergents, you may want to get and follow the directions on the bottles of Retayne (to fix the dyes) and then Synthrapol (to remove all the unreacted dyes) so the fabric actually becomes colorfast and stops bleeding. I have had very good luck just washing the garments separately like I mentioned a couple of washes until they start behaving.
Also, like I mentioned before, some traditional processes (indigo blue in blue jeans, madras hand dyed/hand woven fabrics) are supposed to fade throughout the useful life of the fabrics.
Anyway, we hope you find several options that work for you.
Cheers,
-- Paulo.
I wish you all the success, whether you find an old Maytag set, or find something new that behaves like it or even if you find a new HE set that makes you happy.
I understand, I truly do. Being able to do something that others think of a "chore" as a relaxation/meditation is priceless. For decades I did not understand *why* people hated laundry until I was put in situations (apartment buildings, for example, with "shared" laundry equipment/laundromats) that made me anxious just by thinking about having to do laundry.
So happy that's over for me!
As for hot water and dye transfer/bleed etc. I do suggest that you do some reading in the Dharma Trading website about how to hand dye some fabric. There are multiple slightly different processes, like tie dye, batik, yardage dyeing etc.
See what they tell you and how you feel about it.
I have not actually dyed anything but the couple of times I tie-dyed something or helped overdye gray pants ultra-black for a community theatre group we hang out with.
Once I started washing all my *new* clothes in the same way they tell you to finish dyeing a garment, they started lasting *much* longer.
What I do: *very* quick rinse, a minute or two in cold water in a tub. Swish the garment with similar colors around, squeeze as much water you can without deforming the garments. Fill the tub with warm water, rinse the clothes for 5 minutes or less. Both these rinses are to remove unreacted/unnattached excess dyes -- the dyes can in fact attach themselves to say, a white fabric and that's why you want to remove as much as possible, but you don't want to spend so long that you start removing dyes that *have* reacted but not *fixed* to the fabric.
That's what you do next: 140F water and TOL detergent, it doesn't have to be a long wash, a short wash and through multiple rinses will do fine. If you can't get 140F water, get as close as you can. That should finish the process.
If you can't get your hands on TOL detergents, you may want to get and follow the directions on the bottles of Retayne (to fix the dyes) and then Synthrapol (to remove all the unreacted dyes) so the fabric actually becomes colorfast and stops bleeding. I have had very good luck just washing the garments separately like I mentioned a couple of washes until they start behaving.
Also, like I mentioned before, some traditional processes (indigo blue in blue jeans, madras hand dyed/hand woven fabrics) are supposed to fade throughout the useful life of the fabrics.
Anyway, we hope you find several options that work for you.
Cheers,
-- Paulo.
