How to properly wash things that fade?

things may fade Colored clothes look bright and impressive, but require special care. Any colored linen is prone to shedding - improper washing will lead to washing out of the paint or mixing of several shades. To prevent “dirt,” it is necessary to wash faded items, taking into account several nuances. Below are some basic guidelines and tips.

Does the item really shed?

Not every thing immediately begins to paint upon contact with water. But it’s better not to risk it and check how prone the fabric is to shedding before washing. This is done using a simple test:

wet the edge of a T-shirt or shirt with warm water;
lay the item on the ironing board;
cover the wetted area with a white flap (paper or fabric);
iron with a hot iron;
assess the condition of the napkin (if the flap is stained, the fabric is fading).

A number of manufacturers also offer to test items for paint fastness. They put a “reserve” with the product - a small piece of fabric from which the clothes are made. A piece is cut off and left in a warm soapy solution for 15-20 minutes. If the water has acquired the appropriate shade, it means the material is shedding.

Sorting clothes before washing

Any washing should begin with sorting the laundry. Clothes are necessarily divided by type and color of fabric. In the second case, adheres to the following rules:

do not mix light and black;
We put black with dark blue and dark gray;
we mix warm shades that are similar in color: peach, yellow, orange;
We combine blue, cyan, violet and emerald shades.

If the clothes are a light red color that fades, then washing them with white is prohibited.It is better to run several cycles than to end up with dirty pink items due to dye bleeding.

How to fix the dye?

Ideally, the color of the fabric should be fixed before washing. Then even proximity to snow-white things will not provoke molting. The pigment is correctly “imprinted” into the fibers using salt, vinegar and rinsing.

Salt. The pigment is fixed if you leave the laundry in a saline solution prepared in a ratio of 2 to 1. You should leave the product for 60 minutes and then rinse thoroughly.
Vinegar. Soaking for half an hour in a vinegar solution is also effective. Take 5 tbsp. l. essences per 10 liters of water.

Soaking in a salt or vinegar solution locks the color into the fibers and reduces the chance of shedding!

Rinsing. Here, excess paint is not fixed, but removed from the fibers. First, the item is placed in warm water for 10 minutes, and then rinsed in cold water. Clothes fade: the pigment is washed off, but the material remains colored and “clean”.

The item sheds especially during the first 1-2 washes. Therefore, it is important to wash it separately immediately after purchasing a new T-shirt - first at 40 degrees, and then at 20-30.

Traditional wash

To prevent colored items from fading and spoiling your other wardrobe, they are washed separately. The ideal option in this case is hand washing in a basin. However, here, too, several rules must be followed, otherwise the fabric will discolor and fade. The procedure is as follows:

first study the information on the tag (the manufacturer must indicate the optimal type of washing, temperature, spinning and drying nuances);
empty your pockets;
test the item for its tendency to shed;
draw water, the temperature of which will be 10 degrees less than indicated on the tag;
foam a special detergent for colored items and hand washing (there will be a “Color” mark and an icon with a hand and a basin);
soak the item for 5-30 minutes;
avoid friction and intense compression;
rinse twice (first in warm, then in cold).

It is important that the cleaning product does not contain bleaches. Ideally, you should choose gels with color-trapping particles.

Let's use technology

Washing fadeable items in a machine is allowed. The only difficulty is in volume - dyed clothes should be loaded separately, not mixed with white and light ones. If the colored “pile” is of sufficient weight or the machine’s drum is small, you can start the cycle:

place the sorted pile into the drum;
add detergent (universal or for colors);
choose delicate wash or quick mode;
set the temperature to 30-40 degrees;
set the minimum spin;
activate additional rinse;
remove the laundry from the drum immediately after washing (you cannot leave them wet - they will fade).

In case of heavy soiling, it is possible to use a stain remover. But you should be careful: the product should not be left on the fabric for more than 30 minutes. Prolonged contact with bleaching components will remove pigment from the fibers.

When machine washing colored items, it is recommended to use color-catching wipes.

Special color-catching wipes reduce the likelihood of shedding. They are placed in the drum and, when washed, “intercept” the paint onto themselves, protecting other things. You can wash whites and colors together with them. But if the shedding is severe, then the shred may not withstand a large amount of pigment.

The thing has already faded

If it was not possible to avoid molting, the item will become covered with colored spots. There is no need to throw away chaotically “dyed” clothes - you can try to remove the foreign pigment. First of all, the laundry needs to be washed a second time at 40 degrees, adding salt and washing gel to the tray. Local treatment of “traces” with soda, ammonia or household stain remover is also allowed.

Faded items need to be “saved” immediately after washing - the paint will not come off after drying!

It's easier to re-clean white items. Bleach or hydrogen peroxide will help here. The main thing is to prevent things from drying out, otherwise the pigment will be “imprinted” into the fabric and will not come out.

How to dry fading items?

Shedding is possible not only during washing, but also during drying. To prevent things from staining each other, you need to remember a few nuances. We are talking about the following points:

before drying, the item is rinsed in a vinegar solution to fix the color;
do not expose the fabric to direct sunlight;
Before drying, turn the product inside out;
do not hang things overlapping - this will provoke a pigment transition;
choose a ventilated area for drying to get rid of the vinegar smell.

Ironing for fading items is not prohibited. But if washed poorly, the coloring may recur. In order not to provoke shedding, you should set the iron to the minimum temperature or use a steam generator.