Ugh. My girlfriend is a huge Indianapolis Colts fan and just bought a team sweatshirt. It’s Colt’s blue on the body but the sleeves and hood are white.
She entrusted me to launder it so she wouldn’t ruin it with her rusty well water. I laundered it per the directions and the blue dye has bled onto the white fabric. :eek: I didn’t see the blue stains when the sweatshirt was wet so, yes, I put it in the dryer, too.
Can this be saved?
That’s a tough one. A couple of suggestions to try:
Get one of those “bleach pens” and try using it on one of the white areas where the blue dye bled. (Try a concealed location first.)
Hairspray sometimes will remove pigments.
I would consult a professional stain-removal person of some kind. Dry cleaners usually have one.
Did it bleed uniformly so that she now has a blue sweatshirt with light-blue sleeves? Or did it bleed patchily? If it’s got light-blue sleeves all over, me, I’d either live with it, or see about removing the sleeves and bleaching them separately (see “Professional Stain Removal person”, above). What are the psychic consequences of your sister’s having to live with a blue-on-blue Colts sweatshirt? Is she gonna come after you with a hatchet?
Sorry, “GF” not “sister”. But either way…
If you use the bleach pen, don’t put the tip within 1/2 inch of the color you want to remain. It will bleed into the color and bleach it out. I found that out the hard way.
In the future, try a Dye Magnet. Put out by Woolite (other brands have competing products), it’s essentially a washcloth that likes to by dyed more than most regular fabrics. In fact, a white washcloth works, too. It might not work if the color bled directly from the body to the sleeves without the dye getting into the wash water, though.
If the bleach pen doesn’t work, it might be cheaper to get a fresh shirt.
Get her a New England Patriot’s sweatshirt.
But then, you’ll have to run. 
Honey, I don't think I could run fast enough or far enough... she knows where I live! :D
It’s a patchy blue stain, not evenly saturated. I think I’ll take it to the dry cleaners for an expert opinion first. If they say it’s a no-go, then I’ll try the bleach pen. At this point, I’ve got nothin to lose, as they say.
Good advice about the bleach pen too close to the blue panels. Gah!
I’d like to give the manufacturer a good kick in the arse. Why in the world they would put those two fabrics together is beyond my comprehension.
The Colts have a website. If they have an on-line souvenir store maybe you can buy another shirt.
This is absolutely unacceptable, in my book. Reds bleed, it’s what they do, even the “colorfast” ones, for some number of washes (although you can set them with vinegar and it does a pretty good job). But blues? Nuh-uh. There’s no reason a even moderate quality blue fiber reactive dye should bleed if it was properly treated. You don’t have a case of end-user error here, you have a manufacturer’s defect and should be compensated with a replacement shirt.
Says I. Who dyed fabrics for a living one summer.
Email or call up the distributor or store where the shirt was purchased. Be nice about it, tell them you love their shirt but… . They’ll be happy to replace the shirt, and will probably pull the rest of them from the shelves to make sure it was an isolated problem.
Soak the new shirt in distilled vinegar overnight before washing it, just in case.
I wear a LOT of red and know all too well the pains of red dye*. I didn’t even consider the blue to be a risk. <sigh>
That’s good advice, WhyNot, and after thinking about it, I think we’ll do that first. Since the Colts are still in the playoffs, I’m hoping the store still has a good selection in inventory.
*We occasionally have a load of “pinks” instead a load of whites…