What will work for a red cotton knit sweater whose color has run onto the white collar and cuffs?

Name: Joan

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Clorox Bleach Pen Gel

Country or region: USA

Message: One website said that Rit Fixation is good to use for bleeding that has already occurred on my white cotton collar and cuffs (on a red cotton knit sweater). Clorox 2 has not worked. Your site does not talk about bleeding after the fact. Will this work in my case?

No. Now that the bleeding has already occurred, Rit Dye Fixative, like other cationic dye fixatives, can only make the stains on your collar permanent. This is obviously not something you want!

Cationic dye fixatives can be used only before you have dye where you don't want it, and only when the garment can be immersed in hot water the first time without causing problems when the dye does run. This is clearly not possible when white cotton has already been attached. The fixative should be used on the red part of the sweater only before attaching the white collar and cuffs. (See my page, "Commercial Dye Fixatives".)

Your garment was improperly made; if it was purchased, rather than hand-made by a close relative, it should be returned to the seller or the manufacturer, unless the care label says "dry clean only"'. If it does, dry cleaning instead of washing might have prevented the problem, and provides the maker with a legal "out" for having dyed and finished the garment improperly. Dry cleaning is a ridiculous requirement for an otherwise washable garment, though. The maker of the sweater should have used Retayne or Rit Dye Fixative, or any other brand of cationic dye fixative, on the improperly-fixed red-dyed parts, before ever putting the white collar and cuffs on the sweater. It does not take a great deal of intelligence to understand that unfixed red dye should never be combined in the same garment with white fabric. The construction of this garment was not planned correctly.

The best solution now would be to unpick the collar and cuffs from the sweater, actually removing the stitching that holds them together. Once you have completely separated the collar and cuffs from the sweater, you can use very hot water to remove the red dye stains from the white collar and cuffs (I hope they're pre-shrunk), or a good dye remover such as Rit Color Remover. (See "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?".) If the collar and cuffs are 100% cotton with no synthetic content at all, you can use diluted household chlorine bleach, once you've removed them from the sweater. Meanwhile, without the collar and cuffs, the excess dye in the sweater can be removed safely by washing, or, if washing is not sufficient, the dye can be treated with a cationic dye fixative such as Retayne or Rit Dye Fixative. (You will probably have to order this online, since few local stores carry it.) Only after the red dye is 100% safe should the white collar and cuffs be reattached. You can test the dyed part of the sweater for safety by dampening it, placing a white cotton cloth on each side, and then pressing it dry with a hot iron; if color transfers, the dye has not yet been washed out and/or fixed adequately.

If you are unwilling to remove the collar and cuffs from the sweater and then sew them back on again later, then you are limited in what you can do to repair them. A Clorox Bleach Pen can be used to remove color from the cotton collar and cuffs, but only if they have no synthetic fiber content at all, and you would have to be extraordinarily careful to avoid bleaching out color from the red part of the sweater. Rinsing the bleach out of the color and cuffs without allowing any of the rinse water to drip or splash on the red part of the sweater would be extremely difficult, and yet essential, in order to avoid further ruining the garment. If you can arrange the sweater on a rack in such as way that you can pour boiling water on the pink-stained collar without getting any on the sweater, the hot water might remove the dye, but there is no good way to stop the dye in the sweater from running again, while the collar and cuffs are still attached. Since Retayne, Rit Dye Fixative, and the other cationic dye fixatives all requite immersion in hot water with the dye fixative, there is no way to apply them without risking further bleeding onto the white fabric.

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Posted: Monday - January 02, 2012 at 10:10 AM

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What will work for a red cotton knit sweater whose color has run onto the white collar and cuffs?

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