Part of the homework for my Bargello quilt class is to prewash my fabrics. The instructor recommends prewashing the fabrics in hot water with a product called Retayne. This product "is a color fixative for commerically dyed cotton, linen or rayon fabrics that bleed." It comes in a 4 oz and 16 oz size bottle. The 4 oz. size will treat 24 yards of fabric and since I have 20 fabrics for this quilt, the smaller size should work fine.
I have personally never prewashed my fabrics in hot water or used Retayne. I generally prewash my fabrics in cold water with dye free detergents such as all Free Clear or Dreft. I have only had one fabric bleed (see The Little Gem) so what I have been doing must not be too bad. However, considering the enormous amount of money I have spent on the fabrics for this Bargello quilt... what's another couple of dollars to ensure that I won't ruin my fabrics?
Once I made the decision to follow the instructor's advice, I started searching for this product. I am a bit of a miser so I began looking for the best price on this product. Of course, all the places online with the best prices are SOLD OUT. I started calling around to my LQS's and found that everyone but Patched Works is out of stock. How frustrating... I was just there Sunday for the class and didn't pick up a bottle of Retayne because I wasn't sure that I was going to use it. Now, I have to drive back and it's not exactly close. I guess I will head out there tomorrow afternoon so I can get my fabric prewashed before the weekend, when I hope to get some cutting done.
In the meantime, I will go ahead and pink the edges and sort the fabrics so they will be ready to go into the washing machine as soon as I get my bottle of Retayne.
