Effects on Clothing Washed with Colors

Bleeding Colors

• Bright clothing is fun to wear, but gaily colored garments tend to fade after a few trips through the wash cycle. The reason is that many of the dyes used to tint fabrics are not fully colorfast; minute quantities of color wash out when the material is soaked in water. Other items in the wash often absorb the free-floating dyes -- as a result, a single red sock can turn an entire load of laundry pink. Even items that are colorfast tend to lose a bit of dye during the laundering process; this causes the wash water to turn gray and leaves white and light-colored clothing looking dingy.

Sorting

• Sorting the clothes before washing them is a way to avoid a closet full of dull, off-color clothing. Optimally, separate dirty clothes into at least three piles: whites, light colors and dark colors. Each of these groupings responds well to different washing techniques: hot water and chlorine bleach can ruin colored clothing, but it effectively whitens even the dingiest of whites. Dark colors, on the other hand, fade less when washed in cold water, while light colors can be effectively washed in warm.

Colorfast Test

• Before washing new clothes, test each item for colorfastness. Sprinkle a few drops of cold water on an inner seam, then gently rub the area with a cotton swab or a bit of white tissue. If the swab comes away clean, then you can safely add the item to a load of mixed colors. If the tissue picks up any trace of fabric dye, then you must hand wash the item or launder it with items of a similar color.

Remedies

• To keep colors bright and limited fabric fading, toss a teaspoon of ground black pepper into the machine before adding the laundry. The capsaicin in the pepper helps bind the colors to the fabric, keeping fabrics vivid and reducing the amount of loose fabric dye in the wash. Alternatively, adding one cup of ordinary table salt to the wash can help set fabric dye and keep colored clothes looking bright and new.