7 Most Asked Laundry Questions and Answers: How do I remove dye transfer from clothes?
Dye transfer happens. A lone red sock hides in a load of white clothes. Careless sorting turns a yellow shirt into a blue jean-tinged pea green. Some clothing dye is not stable and will bleed or transfer onto other clothes. If you’ve ever worn new blue jeans that haven’t been washed, you may find that your underwear is blue; that’s dye transfer. We tend to experience dye transfer one way or another, so this is one of the questions we get asked over and over at Satoriale Drycleaners.
Dye transfer doesn’t only happen through other garments, that stray hot pink post-it in your shirt pocket or the purple construction dinosaur in your kid’s school pants can also leave a dye stain if it goes through the washing machine. This is yet another reason to follow one of the most important laundry rules: Empty Your Pockets.
Dye transfer from paper happens when moisture from perspiration, rain or a trip through the washer causes the dye to leach from the paper onto the fabric. Brightly colored uncoated papers like crepe paper, construction paper, and sticky notes are most likely to create stains. paper, sticky notes.
So whether it’s another garment or paper that transferred the dye, here’s what to do.
How to Remove Dye Transfer Stains from Washable Clothes
The first thing to do is find the culprit (fabric or paper) that caused the damage and pull it out of the washer. If the dye-stained clothes are colored or made of synthetic fabrics, rewash all the clothes using a nonchlorine (all-fabric or oxygen) bleach in addition to your regular laundry detergent. Do this before you put the clothes in the dryer.
If the dye-stained load of clothes is all whites and made of cotton, you can add 1/2 cup liquid chlorine bleach instead of oxygen bleach to the bleach dispenser or wash water along with detergent and rewash. Do not use chlorine bleach on any type of colored clothes or synthetic fabrics like nylon or polyester.
If you have already dried the clothing or the dye transfer is very heavy, you will need to soak the clothing before rewashing. Mix a solution of oxygen-based and cool water. Follow the package directions as to how much product to use per gallon of water. Submerge the stained items and allow them to soak for at least eight hours. Check the clothes and if the dye stains are gone, wash as recommended on the care label. If the stains remain, mix a fresh batch of the oxygen bleach and water solution and soak for another eight hours before rewashing.
The oxygen bleach is safe for all washable fabrics, colored and white, except for silk and wool.
This is why clothes should be sorted. Just because something hasn’t faded before doesn’t mean it never will. Even on fabrics labeled as colorfast, sometimes it takes several trips through the washer before dyes begin to wash out and stop clinging to the unsuspecting.
Dye Transfer Stains on Dry Clean Only Clothes
If the dye from a colored paper or an unstable fabric has transferred onto a dry clean only garment, don’t try to solve the problem at home. Instead, take the garment to a professional dry cleaner as soon as possible. Be sure to point out the stain and tell the cleaner what caused the problem.