Can I Bleach It??

I just finished another Egg Money Quilt. The background fabric was an
off-white tone-on-tone Moda fabric, the one with little birds in the
design.

I went to buy the wide backing fabric and found the same thing in the
108" ... except when I got it home, it is *noticeably* darker
beige/cream than the background fabric.

I wonder what would happen if I just washed it with 1/2 cup of bleach.
If you're thinking "you'll ruin it"....please tell me. I can take it.
:-)

OTOH, probably no one will notice except me that it's so much darker
than the front background. What to do, what to do...

Sherry

Can you cut a small piece off the corner and just hand wash in bleach
and water and see what happens, then you'll know for sure. But you could
be right it might only be you that can tell the difference. Ask someone
who doesn't quilt, that will give you an idea.
Take Care
Joanna

Sherry wrote:
I just finished another Egg Money Quilt. The background fabric was an
off-white tone-on-tone Moda fabric, the one with little birds in the
design.

I went to buy the wide backing fabric and found the same thing in the
108" ... except when I got it home, it is *noticeably* darker
beige/cream than the background fabric.

I wonder what would happen if I just washed it with 1/2 cup of bleach.
If you're thinking "you'll ruin it"....please tell me. I can take it.
:-)

OTOH, probably no one will notice except me that it's so much darker
than the front background. What to do, what to do...

Sherry

Just ask yourself how often the backing and the 'fronting' will be seen
at the same time; and, no, it most certainly wouldn't matter - after all
the back is 'in the shade' g
..
In message .com,
Sherry writes
I just finished another Egg Money Quilt. The background fabric was an
off-white tone-on-tone Moda fabric, the one with little birds in the
design.

I went to buy the wide backing fabric and found the same thing in the
108" ... except when I got it home, it is *noticeably* darker
beige/cream than the background fabric.

I wonder what would happen if I just washed it with 1/2 cup of bleach.
If you're thinking "you'll ruin it"....please tell me. I can take it.
:-)

OTOH, probably no one will notice except me that it's so much darker
than the front background. What to do, what to do...

Sherry


--
Best Regards
pat on the hill

Sherry,

Bleach will shorten the life span of your cotton fabric. I would
choose a binding in the same tone as the backing to pull the color to
the front of the quilt. Or even add a small amount of it in a border
to pull it together. It will just add interest to a traditional
scrappy sampler quilt. I would not bleach the fabric. You don't know
what kind of dye or mordant that was used, that will react over time
with the bleach. Soap and bleach will leave a small residue in the
fibers even after several rinsings. It may look fine at first then in a
few years begin to show fiber weekness and color change that you don't
want. All that work and expense, I would not risk it. If you can't
live with the backing then save it for another quilt.

Janet in SW Florida

On Jan 25, 12:30 am, "Sherry" wrote:
I just finished another Egg Money Quilt. The background fabric was an
off-white tone-on-tone Moda fabric, the one with little birds in the
design.

I went to buy the wide backing fabric and found the same thing in the
108" ... except when I got it home, it is *noticeably* darker
beige/cream than the background fabric.

I wonder what would happen if I just washed it with 1/2 cup of bleach.
If you're thinking "you'll ruin it"....please tell me. I can take it.
:-)

OTOH, probably no one will notice except me that it's so much darker
than the front background. What to do, what to do...

Sherry

I wish Marissa was here. In my
unscientific opinion, in the long run,
bleach is Not A Good Thing for fabric.
It may weaken over time. Darker, lighter
.... not a big deal!! PAT

Sherry wrote:

I just finished another Egg Money Quilt. The background fabric was an
off-white tone-on-tone Moda fabric, the one with little birds in the
design.

I went to buy the wide backing fabric and found the same thing in the
108" ... except when I got it home, it is *noticeably* darker
beige/cream than the background fabric.

I wonder what would happen if I just washed it with 1/2 cup of bleach.
If you're thinking "you'll ruin it"....please tell me. I can take it.
:-)

OTOH, probably no one will notice except me that it's so much darker
than the front background. What to do, what to do...

Sherry

D'oh. I didn't even think about deterioration of the fabric over time.
I was just thinking of the immediate, if I managed to pull it off and
get the right color, mission accomplished.
It's pointless to spend the $$ for better-quality backing just to
weaken it with bleach.
Janet mentioned detergent also staying in the fabric. You don't use
detergent to intially wash the fabric? I usually use a miniscule
amount, I thought it was necessary to wash all the sizing and junk out
of the fabric. Do you just wash in plain water?
And now I've stared at this fabric too long that I 'm really
second-guessing the choice. The tone-on-tone part seems heavier than
most. I wonder if it's going to be hard to hand-quilt.

Sherry

Sherry

You can neutralize the bleach. Get one of the chlorine-remover products
from the pet shop (used for aquariums) and soak the fabric in water with
the chlorine-remover.

Wendy

Sherry wrote:

D'oh. I didn't even think about deterioration of the fabric over time.
I was just thinking of the immediate, if I managed to pull it off and
get the right color, mission accomplished.
It's pointless to spend the $$ for better-quality backing just to
weaken it with bleach.
Janet mentioned detergent also staying in the fabric. You don't use
detergent to intially wash the fabric? I usually use a miniscule
amount, I thought it was necessary to wash all the sizing and junk out
of the fabric. Do you just wash in plain water?
And now I've stared at this fabric too long that I 'm really
second-guessing the choice. The tone-on-tone part seems heavier than
most. I wonder if it's going to be hard to hand-quilt.

Sherry

Sherry

I'm so glad you had that information Wendy! I was going to mention something
about neutralizing the bleach, but could not remember exactly how. There was
an artist on some craft show that talked about making your own "batik like"
fabric by using the Bleach Pens to draw patterns to remove dye. (Pretty cool
technique actually!) She did stress, however, that the bleach MUST be
neutralized or the fabric will eventually break down where the bleach was.
Apparently, it never really "leaves" the fiber, even after washing. Glad to
hear about the aquarium stuff, makes perfect sense.

Lorraine in La Center

Howdy!

It helps to have a neutralizing agent to STOP the bleaching action.

http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00160.asp

The main problem I've had w/ bleaching something to a lighter shade
is the uneven results. Fabric being what it is, the entire piece of
cloth doesn't hit the water at the same time nor does it absorb the
same amount of chemicals uniformly: some of the fabric will be lighter than
other parts, which is okay for that hand-dyed look.

Good luck!

Ragmop/Sandy --
"turn a whiter shade of pale" --
a song released in 1967 by the band Procol Harum,
words by Keith Reid

On 1/25/07 8:39 AM, in article , "Pat in
Virginia" wrote:

I wish Marissa was here. In my
unscientific opinion, in the long run,
bleach is Not A Good Thing for fabric.
It may weaken over time. Darker, lighter
... not a big deal!! PAT


Sherry wrote:

I just finished another Egg Money Quilt. The background fabric was an
off-white tone-on-tone Moda fabric, the one with little birds in the
design.

I went to buy the wide backing fabric and found the same thing in the
108" ... except when I got it home, it is *noticeably* darker
beige/cream than the background fabric.

I wonder what would happen if I just washed it with 1/2 cup of bleach.
If you're thinking "you'll ruin it"....please tell me. I can take it.
:-)

OTOH, probably no one will notice except me that it's so much darker
than the front background. What to do, what to do...

Sherry

Howdy!

I use laundry soap to wash all the quilting fabric
that comes into this house (my skin can't handle the rough
finishing chemicals). W/ a good wash & rinse in the machine
there's not enough soap left in the fabric to notice or worry
about (there's an extra rinse cycle, too, if I need it);
I'd know if there was soap residue in the fabric.
Now stop second-guessing yourself, Sherry, and get the back on that
quilt. g It'll be just fine, especially hand-quilted. ;-)

Good luck!

Ragmop/Sandy -- Finished is my favorite kind of quilt


On 1/25/07 8:49 AM, in article
, "Sherry"
wrote:



D'oh. I didn't even think about deterioration of the fabric over time.
I was just thinking of the immediate, if I managed to pull it off and
get the right color, mission accomplished.
It's pointless to spend the $$ for better-quality backing just to
weaken it with bleach.
Janet mentioned detergent also staying in the fabric. You don't use
detergent to intially wash the fabric? I usually use a miniscule
amount, I thought it was necessary to wash all the sizing and junk out
of the fabric. Do you just wash in plain water?
And now I've stared at this fabric too long that I 'm really
second-guessing the choice. The tone-on-tone part seems heavier than
most. I wonder if it's going to be hard to hand-quilt.

Sherry

Sherry