Do you color lock the clothes?

Hello! am a newbie to this forum

I bought an original outfit from volks, with deep red in color,

I let it soaked in water for roughly 24 hours,

and the water become ALL RED

 

I just wonder if anyone do the color lock procedure to the clothes

and if there's any advise when handling this kind of deep color clothes,

thanks a lot

(bought several bottle of those color lock agent, never tried though)

 

(sorry no photo or any reference to the outfit / red water / "color lock agent", no permission to post any image and URL yet )

I'm also a newbie, welcome!!

 

I only wash the black/blue or any cloth I think might stain. I leave them in vinegar for 5 minutes and then proceed to wash with soap and warm water.

 

I will look for the "color lock agent" as that might do better than what I do.

Is vinegar safe for the clothing? I feel like it make it smell a bit. How is it?

 

I'm also a newbie, welcome!!

 

I only wash the black/blue or any cloth I think might stain. I leave them in vinegar for 5 minutes and then proceed to wash with soap and warm water.

 

I will look for the "color lock agent" as that might do better than what I do.

I haven't heard of this lock agent before, neither i know if is something i can find here in Italy i admit, but i have some reservations on using a chemical agent that can remain in the fabric and we don't know if can react to the vynil, since is a pretty delicate material…

 

Personally i wash anything before sewing which is not white or very light color, also because cotton fabrics shrink a bit when washed for first time, so better to shrink before sewing that when the garment is already finished.

 

After that i take care to line in white every part of garment which can touch the girl directly and avoid to use on seams any colored thread which can touch the dolls (since the threads often are the major cause of staining) , when is not possible i use a bodysuit or pray gods the girl don't get stained.

Is vinegar safe for the clothing? I feel like it make it smell a bit. How is it?

 

I'm also a newbie, welcome!!

 

I only wash the black/blue or any cloth I think might stain. I leave them in vinegar for 5 minutes and then proceed to wash with soap and warm water.

 

I will look for the "color lock agent" as that might do better than what I do.

 

It hasn't damaged any of the clothes so I can say it is safe but I don't leave them in for too long. I forgot to mention that I mix the vinegar with water and the reason I use it is because I read on DoA that vinegar was good to lock the colors.

 

It doesn't smell because I wash them well with soap afterwards. The brand I use is "bragg organic raw apple cider vinegar" since that's the one I use to drink every day^^

 

I use this method to wash the clothes for resin dolls, I have no idea if it will work for DDs as I have read that they stain more easily but I'll be receiving my first DD next week hopefully and I have some black items I need to wash. I will try them on the DD to see if it works.

Oooohh, I'll have to keep that in mind. Thanks for all of the information though. I think I'll give a try

 

Is vinegar safe for the clothing? I feel like it make it smell a bit. How is it?

 

I'm also a newbie, welcome!!

 

I only wash the black/blue or any cloth I think might stain. I leave them in vinegar for 5 minutes and then proceed to wash with soap and warm water.

 

I will look for the "color lock agent" as that might do better than what I do.

 

It hasn't damaged any of the clothes so I can say it is safe but I don't leave them in for too long. I forgot to mention that I mix the vinegar with water and the reason I use it is because I read on DoA that vinegar was good to lock the colors.

 

It doesn't smell because I wash them well with soap afterwards. The brand I use is "bragg organic raw apple cider vinegar" since that's the one I use to drink every day^^

 

I use this method to wash the clothes for resin dolls, I have no idea if it will work for DDs as I have read that they stain more easily but I'll be receiving my first DD next week hopefully and I have some black items I need to wash. I will try them on the DD to see if it works.

Vinegar being a color lock agent is a very widespread old wives tail. You will find that suggestion everywhere, but it will really only help set acid dyes, and only when used in proper amounts in heated water. Be careful and dilute vinegar before using on fabrics, and rinse everything well, it is an acid and can eat through fabric over time. What actually happens when you wash things in vinegar is that you rinse out the excess dye and the vinegar breaks the dye down so that it doesn't stain other surfaces. It does make fabric softer, and can brighten blacks and whites by removing soap residue.

 

The only actual dye fixatives are Synthrapol and Retayne, with a few additions made by other companies such as Dharma. But even those can also just be aiding in the washing out of excess dye depending on what dye was used.

 

Clothing dyes are pretty varied in type, they have to be to dye different material types. No one thing will work for every fabric.

Thanks for the detailed response! I guess I'll do more research on exactly what type of material I'll be attempting to color lock before choosing a method Accidentally making the colors fade or ruining the clothing itself is one of my biggest worries...

 

Vinegar being a color lock agent is a very widespread old wives tail. You will find that suggestion everywhere, but it will really only help set acid dyes, and only when used in proper amounts in heated water. Be careful and dilute vinegar before using on fabrics, and rinse everything well, it is an acid and can eat through fabric over time. What actually happens when you wash things in vinegar is that you rinse out the excess dye and the vinegar breaks the dye down so that it doesn't stain other surfaces. It does make fabric softer, and can brighten blacks and whites by removing soap residue.

 

The only actual dye fixatives are Synthrapol and Retayne, with a few additions made by other companies such as Dharma. But even those can also just be aiding in the washing out of excess dye depending on what dye was used.

 

Clothing dyes are pretty varied in type, they have to be to dye different material types. No one thing will work for every fabric.

As I've been trying to learn about DDs, I stumbled upon this article:

 

http://www.figure.fm/en/post/37254/Tutorial+How+to+Color+Lock+and+Stain+Proof+Dollfie+Dream+Clothing.html

 

I was going to try this out on the first red outfit or dark stockings I get.

As I've been trying to learn about DDs, I stumbled upon this article:

 

http://www.figure.fm/en/post/37254/Tutorial+How+to+Color+Lock+and+Stain+Proof+Dollfie+Dream+Clothing.html

 

I was going to try this out on the first red outfit or dark stockings I get.

 

I've been using the tips in that article for a while with decent results, only had one noticeable stain with dark clothing since then in 10 or so tries. I don't really know how many stain mishaps I would have had without attempting to color lock though but I don't fear having my girls wear dark clothes the way I used to.

Ooh!!! I'm definitely going to try these tips out!!! Hoping for the best!!! Thank you for sharing!!!

Thanks for the detailed response! I guess I'll do more research on exactly what type of material I'll be attempting to color lock before choosing a method Accidentally making the colors fade or ruining the clothing itself is one of my biggest worries...

 

Vinegar being a color lock agent is a very widespread old wives tail. You will find that suggestion everywhere, but it will really only help set acid dyes, and only when used in proper amounts in heated water. Be careful and dilute vinegar before using on fabrics, and rinse everything well, it is an acid and can eat through fabric over time. What actually happens when you wash things in vinegar is that you rinse out the excess dye and the vinegar breaks the dye down so that it doesn't stain other surfaces. It does make fabric softer, and can brighten blacks and whites by removing soap residue.

 

The only actual dye fixatives are Synthrapol and Retayne, with a few additions made by other companies such as Dharma. But even those can also just be aiding in the washing out of excess dye depending on what dye was used.

 

Clothing dyes are pretty varied in type, they have to be to dye different material types. No one thing will work for every fabric.

 

bumping this as I thought it would be pertinent.

 

I'm in the process of ordering a generic syntrapol and retayne from a canadian source (dharma wanted 45$us to ship 15$ worth of chemicals to me)

 

I have a few fabrics I know that will stain or have stained parts of my girls. Both the seller in toronto and the customer service rep at dharma have said I can throw finished garments with mixed materials in with the solutions and use both treatments one after the other. Since the chemicals react with the dye itself and not the fabric, it's a good chance you can use it on a finished piece with both light and dark colors. The dharma rep said that these 2 may not work well with synthetic textiles, so we'll see how well it works out since it's a bit hard to determine what some of the materials are in some of these outfits. I'm guessing it's mainly cotton. These 2 chemicals are supposed to work with natural fiber fabrics. The only issue is that since we don't know the types of dye used, it's going to be hit or miss.

 

I will be testing a red shirt from volks, black pants, shirt and underwear set from tcdoll. I'll also throw in some white craft cotton or old bedsheet to see if the dye that's pulled out bonds to the undyed fabric.

 

I'll also be trying it out on some synthetic fabrics as well that I got off the bolt to make some clothes.

Thanks for the detailed response! I guess I'll do more research on exactly what type of material I'll be attempting to color lock before choosing a method Accidentally making the colors fade or ruining the clothing itself is one of my biggest worries...

 

Vinegar being a color lock agent is a very widespread old wives tail. You will find that suggestion everywhere, but it will really only help set acid dyes, and only when used in proper amounts in heated water. Be careful and dilute vinegar before using on fabrics, and rinse everything well, it is an acid and can eat through fabric over time. What actually happens when you wash things in vinegar is that you rinse out the excess dye and the vinegar breaks the dye down so that it doesn't stain other surfaces. It does make fabric softer, and can brighten blacks and whites by removing soap residue.

 

The only actual dye fixatives are Synthrapol and Retayne, with a few additions made by other companies such as Dharma. But even those can also just be aiding in the washing out of excess dye depending on what dye was used.

 

Clothing dyes are pretty varied in type, they have to be to dye different material types. No one thing will work for every fabric.

 

bumping this as I thought it would be pertinent.

 

I'm in the process of ordering a generic syntrapol and retayne from a canadian source (dharma wanted 45$us to ship 15$ worth of chemicals to me)

 

I have a few fabrics I know that will stain or have stained parts of my girls. Both the seller in toronto and the customer service rep at dharma have said I can throw finished garments with mixed materials in with the solutions and use both treatments one after the other. Since the chemicals react with the dye itself and not the fabric, it's a good chance you can use it on a finished piece with both light and dark colors. The dharma rep said that these 2 may not work well with synthetic textiles, so we'll see how well it works out since it's a bit hard to determine what some of the materials are in some of these outfits. I'm guessing it's mainly cotton. These 2 chemicals are supposed to work with natural fiber fabrics. The only issue is that since we don't know the types of dye used, it's going to be hit or miss.

 

I will be testing a red shirt from volks, black pants, shirt and underwear set from tcdoll. I'll also throw in some white craft cotton or old bedsheet to see if the dye that's pulled out bonds to the undyed fabric.

 

I'll also be trying it out on some synthetic fabrics as well that I got off the bolt to make some clothes.

 

I hope you let us know the results!

 

I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread - I actually was looking into this issue myself because I have some red denim fabric that I have soaked multiple times and the water has finally started to come out only as a light pink unlike the first time I soaked it. I did do a very diluted vinegar wash but it honestly didn't seem to do very much? (I then washed it in my washing machine after just to make sure I got rid of the vinegar smell - I didn't realize the vinegar could eventually eat through the fabric or else I probably wouldn't have done it but since I did a heavily diluted wash it should be okay I think)

 

I'm a little worried it might stain the vinyl despite doing so many soaks and washes with the denim so I might make lining on the inside just in case or have my doll wear a body stocking and only have her wear the clothing for short periods of time for photos.

From the reading I've done, vinegar and salt (among other things) are used in the dyeing process but I don't think there is any truth to them being able to lock colors in after the process is complete. There are other chemicals in the dye present during the initial process that are washed away, so applying either even if you guess the proper one to use depending on material and type of dye used won't work.

 

 

When I asked the CSR at dharma if I could soak with the retayne solution before washing with the synthrapol, she said there was no reason I couldn't double treat them. Retayne apparently expands the volume of the dye molecules to set them into the fabric better, while synthrapol lifts loose dye and locks it into the wash water.

 

Stage 1 of my test will be the retayne soak

 

Stage 2 is a hand wash in the sink with synthrapol

 

water containing retayne is clear

 

Agitated water containing synthrapol is cloudy, and might be a bit grey or brown. It's hard to tell in the lighting conditions I'm working in.

 

 

beware of dark denim. lol

 

I had a navy blue jumpsuit from tcdoll, feels like cotton.

pair of sunnys world jeans dark blue denim

pair of jeans I want to say from alice dark blue denim

 

I don't think the fabrics were prewashed at all... they went through the retayne treatment seemingly ok... the wash with synthrapol yielded dark blue water and pale blue water for almost half an hour.

 

the black bdu set from tcdoll also yielded a lot of dye in the wash stage. The dye seemed to be brown. Black is going to appear brown or blue. Something on this set stained an arm so I'm definitely going to wrap a sacrifical body part in the pants or shirt to see if anything is left.

 

the red volks shirt seemed to not have anything release, but I also have washed this shirt several times very aggressively and it's also a very thin, borderline sheer fabric. I might have washed it all out already. The water did seem to come out a touch brown or greyer th

 

A half yard of cotton ripstop I dyed a darker blue using a dylon dye apparently had no dye loss.

 

A piece of white cloth I put in with the black and navy blue and denim wash seems to be slightly tinted blue. Will have to wait until it's dry.

 

A piece of white cloth I put in with the dylon redyed ripstop is still as white as the original stock I cut it from.

 

I do believe all of the clothes I washed today were natural fiber. There may have been some synthetic ratio involved but since doll clothes are not labeled with care instructions, we'll never know. lol.

 

more to come

 

will be testing some artifical silk brocade and some satin at some point.

From the reading I've done, vinegar and salt (among other things) are used in the dyeing process but I don't think there is any truth to them being able to lock colors in after the process is complete. There are other chemicals in the dye present during the initial process that are washed away, so applying either even if you guess the proper one to use depending on material and type of dye used won't work.

 

 

When I asked the CSR at dharma if I could soak with the retayne solution before washing with the synthrapol, she said there was no reason I couldn't double treat them. Retayne apparently expands the volume of the dye molecules to set them into the fabric better, while synthrapol lifts loose dye and locks it into the wash water.

 

Stage 1 of my test will be the retayne soak

 

Stage 2 is a hand wash in the sink with synthrapol

 

water containing retayne is clear

 

Agitated water containing synthrapol is cloudy, and might be a bit grey or brown. It's hard to tell in the lighting conditions I'm working in.

 

 

beware of dark denim. lol

 

I had a navy blue jumpsuit from tcdoll, feels like cotton.

pair of sunnys world jeans dark blue denim

pair of jeans I want to say from alice dark blue denim

 

I don't think the fabrics were prewashed at all... they went through the retayne treatment seemingly ok... the wash with synthrapol yielded dark blue water and pale blue water for almost half an hour.

 

the black bdu set from tcdoll also yielded a lot of dye in the wash stage. The dye seemed to be brown. Black is going to appear brown or blue. Something on this set stained an arm so I'm definitely going to wrap a sacrifical body part in the pants or shirt to see if anything is left.

 

the red volks shirt seemed to not have anything release, but I also have washed this shirt several times very aggressively and it's also a very thin, borderline sheer fabric. I might have washed it all out already. The water did seem to come out a touch brown or greyer th

 

A half yard of cotton ripstop I dyed a darker blue using a dylon dye apparently had no dye loss.

 

A piece of white cloth I put in with the black and navy blue and denim wash seems to be slightly tinted blue. Will have to wait until it's dry.

 

A piece of white cloth I put in with the dylon redyed ripstop is still as white as the original stock I cut it from.

 

I do believe all of the clothes I washed today were natural fiber. There may have been some synthetic ratio involved but since doll clothes are not labeled with care instructions, we'll never know. lol.

 

more to come

 

will be testing some artifical silk brocade and some satin at some point.

 

Thanks for sharing! I was wondering, where can I purchase synthrapol? And also how do you use it? Do you just directly soak it in there or is it added to the wash or water? Sorry I'm kind of a noob lol

http://www.dharmatrading.com/ is probably the best place to get both of them if you are in the states. Elsewhere you will need to do your research. Dharma will ship to you if you are in a certain country who permits the chemicals to be shipped, otherwise you'll have to find another source. Also it's expensive to ship liquids. It was something like 4-5x the cost of the 2 products I was ordering if I were to have it shipped from the states, which is why I tried to find a local source for it.

 

Instructions are included on the labels. Results will most likely vary depending on what you put in, so wash completed/finished outfits at your own peril.

Ouch - yeah that shipping cost is quite the killer I will try to find it somehow locally near me if I'm able to. I guess I will just stick to the usual multiple washings and soaks for now until there's a better solution

From the reading I've done, vinegar and salt (among other things) are used in the dyeing process but I don't think there is any truth to them being able to lock colors in after the process is complete. There are other chemicals in the dye present during the initial process that are washed away, so applying either even if you guess the proper one to use depending on material and type of dye used won't work.

 

 

When I asked the CSR at dharma if I could soak with the retayne solution before washing with the synthrapol, she said there was no reason I couldn't double treat them. Retayne apparently expands the volume of the dye molecules to set them into the fabric better, while synthrapol lifts loose dye and locks it into the wash water.

 

Stage 1 of my test will be the retayne soak

 

Stage 2 is a hand wash in the sink with synthrapol

 

water containing retayne is clear

 

Agitated water containing synthrapol is cloudy, and might be a bit grey or brown. It's hard to tell in the lighting conditions I'm working in.

 

 

beware of dark denim. lol

 

I had a navy blue jumpsuit from tcdoll, feels like cotton.

pair of sunnys world jeans dark blue denim

pair of jeans I want to say from alice dark blue denim

 

I don't think the fabrics were prewashed at all... they went through the retayne treatment seemingly ok... the wash with synthrapol yielded dark blue water and pale blue water for almost half an hour.

 

the black bdu set from tcdoll also yielded a lot of dye in the wash stage. The dye seemed to be brown. Black is going to appear brown or blue. Something on this set stained an arm so I'm definitely going to wrap a sacrifical body part in the pants or shirt to see if anything is left.

 

the red volks shirt seemed to not have anything release, but I also have washed this shirt several times very aggressively and it's also a very thin, borderline sheer fabric. I might have washed it all out already. The water did seem to come out a touch brown or greyer th

 

A half yard of cotton ripstop I dyed a darker blue using a dylon dye apparently had no dye loss.

 

A piece of white cloth I put in with the black and navy blue and denim wash seems to be slightly tinted blue. Will have to wait until it's dry.

 

A piece of white cloth I put in with the dylon redyed ripstop is still as white as the original stock I cut it from.

 

I do believe all of the clothes I washed today were natural fiber. There may have been some synthetic ratio involved but since doll clothes are not labeled with care instructions, we'll never know. lol.

 

more to come

 

will be testing some artifical silk brocade and some satin at some point.

 

What were the end results in terms of staining the doll?