Thimbleanna » The Bleeding Tree Skirt

The Bleeding Tree Skirt

January 21, 2008 on 11:04 pm | In Quilting | 32 Comments

As you may remember, I mentioned at Christmas, that water from MeMum’s Christmas tree had spilled onto her redwork Christmas tree skirt, causing the red fabric to bleed onto the white fabric. You all gave me some great advice for how to solve the problem, so I’ve been chomping at the bit to get to try it out. I finally convinced MeMum to let me bring the tree skirt home — I had to promise her that if we ended up with a pink tree skirt, I’d make her a new one.

So! Yesterday was the day to test the theories. First, here’s a close-up shot of the damage. You can see traces of pink around the red fabric (click on picture for a close-up view) — the pictures don’t really do it justice — it looks much worse in real life.

What course of action to take? There were many suggestions, so it was hard to narrow them down. Shout color catcher and Synthrapol seemed to be the leading contenders, so I went with them. But which one to try first? I used the time tested method:

Synthrapol it is. I filled the washer tub with cold water because I was too timid to try hot water. I really didn’t want that red fabric to run any more. I added 1/4 cup of synthrapol.

Then, I held my breath and put the tree skirt into the tub.

Cue the Jaws music. Those bubbles look like they’re tinged a bit pink, but not really.

There wasn’t much red in the water. I hovered over that washer like — well, I can’t think of a suitable simile, but trust me, I kept opening the lid every 2 minutes. Not much going on in there. I let the water drain, checked the tree skirt and found it pretty much unchanged. I pondered the next step. Several people commented that they thought repeated washings was the key, so I filled the tub again and added more synthrapol. This time with warm water — the lack of red in the cold water made me very brave. Still hovering, I let it run its cycle, but there still wasn’t much going on. The bad news was that the stains were still there — maybe a teeny bit fainter, but it was hard to tell since they intensify when they’re wet. The good news was that the unstained white fabric was still white, so at least I hadn’t done any more damage. TheManoftheHouse suggested maybe I should quit hovering and maybe something would happen. Nope, not going to happen! I decided to get really brave and crank the temperature all the way up to hot. (And we have pretty hot water.) I put in more Synthrapol and this time I decided to throw in a color catcher just for the heck of it. The water looked perfectly clear to me, but I guess you never know.

After this load, the color catcher came out pretty pink. I have no clue where the pink came from, as the water was still clear, but it was really encouraging! I checked the stained areas, and gee, they looked a bit fainter. So, I decided to try it again — this time only with the color catcher. It still had a tinge of pink, so I did another washing with a third color catcher. Here’s a look at the color catchers after each cycle.

Altogether I did 6 wash cycles and I think one or two rinse cycles, stopping short of the spin cycle each time. After the 4th cycle, I started to get really excited as I could see some progress. And after the 6th cycle, it was looking pretty darn good. Actually, I was beside myself, because it looked like this:

WooHoo! I couldn’t believe it! You can still see just the faintest tinges of pink around the red, but it’s amazingly better than it was and I decided to cut and run because I was worried about the effect of all that scalding hot water on the red fabric and on the embroidery. (I’m a firm believer that as few washings as possible is the way to preserve quilts.)

So, I’m not sure exactly what the key was (synthrapol? color catcher? repeated washings? water temperature?) but I suspect it was a combination of several of them. All I know is that you guys are geniuses and MeMum and I are thrilled with the results. THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all your great advice. You guys are the BEST!

I hope you all had a great weekend — as you can see, mine was fantastic!
XOXO,
Anna

32 Comments

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Yooray!! That would have made me a nervous wreck! So glad that beautiful tree skirt is looking better now (esp. with all that adorable embroidery on it- I think I would cry for you and MeMum if it were ruined).

As for socks on circs, I’ve never tried it. I’ve kind of had this “thing” about conquering dpn’s so that’s all I’ve used on socks so far. I sure can see the logic of doing 2 at once, though.

Comment by rohanknitter — January 22, 2008 #
Yooray?? That should be Hooray!

Comment by rohanknitter — January 22, 2008 #
Brillianr! AND you get to keep the vinegar for your fries!

Comment by Marianne — January 22, 2008 #
Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I am so happy, that is such a pretty tree skirt. You got guts my dear!

Comment by Jewels — January 22, 2008 #
LOL Fabulous! I’m so glad it worked.

Comment by Felicia — January 22, 2008 #
Yeah, I am so glad it worked!! I still say it was the color catcher!!

Comment by Jackie — January 22, 2008 #
Phew!!! I’m delighted that it worked! I would have been hovering just as much as you I think! Lucy x

Comment by Lucy Locket-Pocket — January 22, 2008 #
I’ve never heard of that Synthrapol stuff, so I went and looked it up. I guess it should keep it from happening again?

Comment by Sarah — January 22, 2008 #
YAY!!!!

I am so glad that your persistence paid off! That tree skirt is so lovely, and has total “family heirloom” potential – I’m just thrilled that this all worked!

Comment by lla — January 22, 2008 #
What wonderful news, love that tree skirt. My friend made a red and white house quilt, washed all of the fabrics and when she washed it to get the quilt markings out, you guessed it, the red bled! She used color catchers and it they worked! Amazing how that works.

Comment by mar — January 22, 2008 #
I think it was all the watching and hovering that did the trick…LOL….great work. I’ll have to keep both those products on hand.

Comment by Wendy — January 22, 2008 #
Whew!!! I’m so glad that came out. It was just awful seeing that. You did such a great job on that skirt. I love it!!! Bet you all feel much better.

Comment by sharon — January 22, 2008 #
Whew! I think its a combo of the sythopol, hot water and repeated washings. The color catcher was the final good luck charm. So glad it worked out.

Comment by Pam — January 22, 2008 #
Well, everyone else already said yay, so I will say Goody! So glad you got a good result.
Loved reading your past post too. Love those little pendants, & of course love your little Bunny pincushions.

Comment by meggie — January 22, 2008 #
Wow..what a read…my heart is racing!! Can’t imagine how you were feeling!!! I’m glad you had a go with the hot water…as I was reading I was thinking…you need to try hot water…so I’m glad it worked. I suspect that if it had a chance to dry out in the sun..even for a bit it might just bleach the rest of the red out.

Phew!

Comment by jane Weston — January 22, 2008 #
WOO HOO, YEA, WAY TO GO!!!!!!!! I’m really happy for you.

Comment by Jean T — January 22, 2008 #
Oh hooray! I am SO glad you were able to get that out. Way to GO!!

Comment by Camille — January 22, 2008 #
I’m so glad that you did this post. I have a beautiful blue and white embroidered cloth that the blue thread has run on. You’ve given me the courage to attempt to save it.

Thanks Anna.

Comment by Mrs.Staggs — January 23, 2008 #
Glad you were able to get the stain out. The tree skirt looks so nice. Now it can be enjoyed for many more Christmas’s

Comment by Christine — January 23, 2008 #
WOOHOO!!!! Lookee there!! I have not heard of either product you used, but I’m gonna go out and get me some, you betcha.
I think it was a combination of the color catcher, the hovering and the watching that did the trick!! You can breathe deeply and relax now!! Hooray!

Comment by Nan — January 23, 2008 #
wooooooo-hooooooooooo!

amazing, really, don’t you think? I didn’t think it was possible to reverse the damage of red fabric bleeding.

Comment by amandajean — January 23, 2008 #
I’m so glad that it all worked out for saving this beautiful piece of work.

I have to say that as I was reading your story (well done!), I was actually feeling your anxiety with each and every load. Whew!

Comment by June — January 23, 2008 #
Don’t you just love it when a good plan comes together? It took work but it was worth it. The before pic was really icky. Well done.

Comment by Nanette — January 23, 2008 #
Thank you ever so much for the “tutorial”. I just posted an entry with that very same problem on my blog. Now I will try to be daring! Take care.

Comment by gwen — January 23, 2008 #
Wow!! Thanks for sharing, I’m so glad it worked.

Comment by Dee Light — January 23, 2008 #
I never would have had the courage to put that gorgeous piece of work in hot water–which reminds me of something totally irrelevant. Namely, “A woman is like a teabag. You don’t know how strong she is ’til you put her in hot water!” Moving right along—I’m glad it ended well and not disastrously.
I think I’m in love with your Beckie Bunny—so cute! Is there a pattern for her knocking about?

Comment by molly — January 23, 2008 #
Anna that is wonderful news…I am so happy that it came out…you were sure brave :-)

Comment by Carol — January 23, 2008 #
I’m so glad that you had success! I have a front loading washer, so I never see what the color of the water is. I just know that I’ve been so lucky with color catchers that I’ve personally spread the word to dozens of people, and I don’t prewash anything anymore.

Comment by Mary Ann — January 23, 2008 #
Whew! That was close. You’ve brought it back from the dead. Does that make it a ‘Frankenskirt’ now?

Comment by Camilla — January 23, 2008 #
Aren’t you good! Is your mum very pleased with you. Nice to see you adopting that old scientific method of eenie etc. great results and very pretty colour catchers too
Kimx

Comment by kim — January 24, 2008 #
I am going to have to get some of those color catchers. I have always been a bit skeptical, but wow do they work. Thanks for sharing your results.
Heather

Comment by Splaneyo — January 25, 2008 #
thank-you so much for documenting the progress of the red stain removal with this product! I’m definitely tagging this page for future reference!

Comment by Penny — January 26, 2008 #