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Author
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Topic: blotchy wool
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Nikki
Member
Member # 27
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posted 12-30-2000 12:13 AM
    
I've got a heap of wool that I threw into the wash after buying to fuzz up. Annoyingly, I had put some innocent-looking detergent in with it, some kind of liquid All or something. Now, there are faint blotches all over the fabric where the full-strength detergent made contact when I poured it in. The wool is a medium blue with a tint of green, and the detergent appears to have drained the green tint out. It isn't terribly noticeable, but it is kinda like a grease stain - hard to see close up, but more apparent from a distance. While I realize I can't get the green tint back, are there any suggestions for any treatments that might even it out? I don't want to mess around with bleach, but I've got a lot of extra bits of wool to experiment on. Maybe faint overdyeing in teal to even out the green without changing the color too much? Or some way of fading the whole thing fast? I didn't notice the splotches til after I had cut the pattern out, so now I'm stuck.I've never seen this happen before, and I've usually used detergent on wools (not Calgon either, the granular kind from the bulk store), so this is pretty weird to me. As far as I can tell, there was no bleach in the detergent, but who knows what all those chemicals do....
Registered: May 2000 | IP: Logged
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hauptfrau
New Member
Member # 0
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posted 12-30-2000 01:17 AM
Yup, I've had the same thing happen to me, to my great disgust...  It seems that virtually all modern detergents have "color enhancers" or "power booster" which act as a bleach on wool. I've *never* had it happen on another fibre, only wool. I wonder why?in some cases, I was able to cut around the spotting, not an option for you at this point. In some cases, I've left the spotting- the unevenness of the dye could be related to the class of the wearer, and is kind of cool. We assume all medieval dye jobs were as even as modern, but there's little way to tell. A mottled dye job tends to look more "hand done" to me, but that's a personal preference, and certainly not appropriate for every garment. I've never tried overdyeing or bleaching, and would be very cautious in trying either. There is no way to make the faded spots take up dye faster than the unfaded spots, and the spots may be more visible if the color is darker! Gwen
Registered: A Long Time Ago! | IP: Logged
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LHF
Member
Member # 71
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posted 04-14-2001 12:58 AM
hey Alasdair,DON'T USE BLEACH ON WOOL!!! (i think that you told me that once Nikki) it is know to actually eat away at the wool fibers, even the colour safe ones. being the curious sort i had to see for myself and experimented with a scrap piece. it was incredible! the wool actually dissolved away to nothing. it of course wasn't a spontaneous reaction and happened over a course of a couple of hours; but the reaction was a complete one. i also tried it on some wool blends leaving behind a meshwork of polyesthers. way kewl! o.k. enough about my chemsperiments...i'd wash it a couple of more times and see if it evens out. if not, i've had some results with the rit brand colour removers. however it works best in very hot water which may further shrink your fabric. if this is too harsh try thier fabric preparer, it allows the colour to hold fast. have fun, daniel [This message has been edited by LHF (edited 04-14-2001).]
Registered: Nov 2000 | IP: Logged
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