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I shoulda known better

Sigh. I washed 6 1/2 yards of black denim from WalMart (the only store less than 90 minutes from my house with anything close to twill, denim or canvas duck) for making Christmas gifts. With it, I decided to be efficient and save water, I washed 8 yards of nice flannel from eQuilter…red with penguins and green with penguins, all of which qualified as “darks” in my book.

BAAADDDDDDD MISTAKE. I know have 8 yards of trashed, gray, dingy flannel. I have tried almost everything. Synthrapol (which helps remove unbonded molecules from hand-dyed fabrics). No luck. Wisk. No luck. To the store today. Bought Oxy-Clean. Used that with Wisk. No luck. Bought Colorox 2. No luck. Bought a RIT “whitener and brightener.” Still in the wash. I am not optimistic. That’s about $60 in flannel down the tubes. It was going to be flannel pajama pants for the boys and me for Christmas. It is no longer available at eQuilter. Waaaaaaaah!

Moral of the story: no matter how desperate, and how fiscally responsible you’re trying to be with gift, do NOT, EVER, under ANY circumstances buy ANYTHING that isn’t a pre-packaged national brand name from Wal-Mart.

Waaaaaaah!

6 Responses to “I shoulda known better”

  1. Deb Says:

    Oh my, horrible! I hate that for you! Send Carol Soderlund an email and ask her opinion. My suggestion is to boil water and try pouring boiling hot water with synthropol. I think it’s the temperature that helps break those weak bonds. But ask Carol, she might have a suggestion. That works for spots, but maybe not for so much yardage at one time.

  2. :-D eirdre Says:

    My language would be not suitable for Art and Quilting in Camden. If the color is really trashed for pj’s, it might be ok to use for a snuggle winter quilt – after all everything is a little grey in the winter (at least once the plows go through).

    or you could play with your dyes and totally mess with it?

    I hope the Rit worked yesterday, but sounds like you did plenty of other things which should have worked! Do you ever use dye catchers?

  3. Anonymous Says:

    Sarah, so sorry for your problem. I guess all of us have done something like that at one time or another.

  4. Emily Says:

    I am so sorry to hear this! I did have some really good luck with Biz recently, taking ink pen out of my upholstered footstool. I don’t why Biz seems different than the others, but it really has gotten out some tough stuff. It might require soaking a few days.

    I just mention it in case you are still willing to try more options. Good luck.

  5. Anonymous Says:

    How terrible! I can add insult to injury and say you perhaps save around $3.00 worth of water in the process.
    Do you have COLOUR RUN REMOVER where you live? This will remove any color that was not the original color of the fabric. Try the DYLON Brand.
    I feel for your loss.

  6. Jeri Says:

    Oh, Sarah what a shame. I am so sorry for you. I know you’ll do differently next time…. how about using that flannel on the back of a sofa-quilt? Or, it could be used in place of batting in a dark colored quilt of some sort…