If you have ever seen blue streaks on upholstery after wearing new blue jeans, you've witnessed crocking. It occurs because the dye was not properly adhered to the fabric. Color bleeding happens with the fabric gets wet and dye leaches out into the water.
Therefore, red colored clothing is associated with color bleeding more than other colors. Garments with red direct dye are much more likely to color bleed in the laundry as opposed to clothes that use fiber reactive dye. This is because of the chemical makeup of direct dye and it reacts with the fibers of the clothing.
Add 1 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle or one-half cup salt to the wash to help hold in colors. Use color-catcher sheets, which trap extraneous dyes during the wash cycle to prevent bleeding. Don't overstuff your dryer. Clothes will dry faster.
Light colored fabrics are sensitive to darker dyes and can absorb them and look faded, so it's best to keep colors and darks separate for both washing and drying. Keep light colors like pinks, lavenders, yellows, light blues and light greens separate from grays, blacks, reds, navies and other dark colors.
No matter what you do, colored clothes will likely bleed in the laundry, especially the first time you wash them. But there are ways to lessen the damage. Wash, dry, fold, repeat ...
Take a white cloth and dampen it with a commercial stain remover, rubbing alcohol, hairspray, or any clear solvent that is 90% alcohol. Dab the stain with the white cloth repeatedly, and the dye should keep transferring from your garment onto the white cloth. Afterward, rinse in warm water. Proceed with normal wash.
Washing clothes in cold water will mostly prevent color bleeding between clothes. So why not just combine the whites with the lights then? While it may not prevent color bleeding as well, hot or warm water washes away dirt better than cold water, so your whites stay, well, white.
What Falls Under Dark-Colored Clothing? The dye in darker clothes can easily seep into lighter clothes during the laundry process, that's why it's best to wash dark-colored garments (black, grey, dark-brown, dark-green, olive, purple, indigo, navy blue, dark-red, crimson, and so on) in a separate batch.
Sorting laundry loads
It's very important to wash your lights and darks laundry separately, as darker dyes can ruin lighter fabrics. Sort your greys, blacks, navies, reds, dark purples and similar colours into one load, and your pinks, lavenders, light blues, light greens and yellows into another laundry.
Most jeans have a disclaimer tag indicating that the indigo dye process used to manufacture the jeans will cause the color to bleed and to wash them pronto. Wash your dark denim jeans inside out with cold water, as it's more gentle on fabric dyes and hot water will cause your jeans to shrink.
If laundry is coming out with bluish colored stains, it suggests the detergent compartment or the fabric softener compartment is being overfilled. When these compartments are overfilled, the detergent or fabric softener will immediately dispense into the wash tub, resulting in stains on the fabric.
While the U.S. state of Washington is considered a solidly Democratic state, it mainly elected Republican candidates during its first forty years of statehood. It currently holds the longest streak of Democratic governors in the nation, having last elected a Republican to the top executive office in 1980.
One easy way to test if a fabric is colorfast is to dampen a clean, white cloth. Rub the wet cloth on an interior seam or hem of a colored garment. If any color comes off onto the white cloth, then the item is not colorfast and the dye will run when the garment is washed.
Remove Color Bleed Stains With Oxygen-Based Bleach
This includes color-safe oxygenated bleach. Since this is color-safe, it can work on both white and colored clothing. If you use the other type of bleach, you'll need to know how to remove bleach stains from your colored items to keep them from being ruined.
→ Darks: Grays, blacks, navies, reds, dark purples and similar colors are sorted into this load. → Lights: More pastel-type colors such as pinks, lavenders, light blues, lights greens and yellows are placed in this pile of laundry.
If you're doing laundry (without bleach, mind you), instead of separating colors and whites, you can put your blues in with the whites. In fact, if you've noticed a yellow tinge to old t-shirts and other whites that have been bleached often, a bit of blue can actually help that appearance.
Found yourself wondering, “can black clothes be washed with colours?” The answer is yes. However, if you want to ensure you are washing black clothes without fading, always wash darks separately from lights.
Always dilute bluing (it is highly concentrated) in cold water before adding to any type of washer. Never pour it directly into the machine because it can permanently stain fabrics. To whiten whites in a standard or top-load HE washer in the wash cycle, stir 1/4 teaspoon liquid bluing into one quart of water.
Let us assure you that our bluing is not a dye, and it is removable from all washable fabric. If the bluing is completely removed, your job is complete. Wash your items as usual using non-bleach detergent. If the bluing is fading, but some remains, this means that the process is working but may need more time.
Use a mild detergent with cold water on a gentle cycle for blue jeans, or warm water on the same cycle for white denim.
While some washing machine temperature settings go as low as 20°C, most cold washes start at 30°C. A setting of 30°C is usually recommended for washing delicate clothes when combined with a delicate cycle, and not on quick wash.
When to Use Cold Water – For dark or bright colors that bleed or delicate fabrics, use cold water (80°F). Cold water also saves energy, so it is a good choice if you want to be eco-friendly. If you choose cold water, you may need to pre-treat or pre-soak your clothes if your laundry items are heavily soiled.
Bright and dark colours prefer quick and cold washes.
Higher temperatures encourage the loss of dye and fade black and bright clothes by opening up the fibres, so a cold wash is your best bet. Washing your garments on 30°C temperatures will help to protect colours from running.