When sewing for my dolls, I like to pre-wash cotton fabrics to remove any sizing (starch), and colours such as red, black and denim, are also treated to help their colour fastness. Then they are rinsed, air dryed indoors (stops the sun bleaching them) and pressed, prior to laying the patterns and cutting the garments out.
When purchasing garments, I find it's a good idea to check with suppliers to see if the garments purchased are colour fast. If new doll clothes were not pre-treated or should the supplier not know, I soak them in a tub/sink with a mixture of enough cold water to cover the garments, a 1/2 cup of white vinegar and 1/2 cup of salt for at least an hour. I DO NOT mix colours, and always do a seperate load for red and another for black or denim. Then I simply follow the steps above . . . rinse, dry, press.
This is a very good advice, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey you're welcome Musume. :)
DeleteHugs,
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I ended up using this and it was AMAZING! It worked like a charm, so thank you so much for sharing it!!
DeleteI'm so glad it worked for you Musume, it's something I have been doing for years . . . a little trick I learned from working with textiles in both furniture and fashion industries. :)
DeleteDid you find removing the starch makes the fabric softer and easier to work with too?
The fabric was softer and it bent/draped easily, indeed! It also looked more "jean-like" and not as stiff either! Happy with the results! :D
DeleteGreat tips!!! I have never done anything to any piece of clothing I've bought for my dolls, mostly because I have no idea what to do! But now I know~ yay! I haven't had problems with staining but that's only because I only dress the dolls for photos and nothing else, but I hope I can have them out of their boxes and dressed more often in the future.
ReplyDeleteHi Alejandra,
DeleteI'm pleased it helped you. Most light coloured fabrics are fine, but red, black and denim are notorious for not being colourfast, but you have probably noticed that when washing your own clothes. I'm not saying my solution is perfect, but it does help in most cases.
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Hellou! I always keep it to the light colors in fabrics, even if I would like to buy some darker ones. But this tip is really a good thing that I will follow! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHugs!
Hi Niina,
DeleteWorking with textiles, one is bound to pick up handy hints along the way...and this is an old one. :) I know a lot of girls love pastels, I do myself, but it's good to know what to do in case you want to dress your dolly kids in a pair of jeans with a red top at some stage. Who knows some day you may even want to dress a Goth girl or boy. :)
Hugs,
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Thank you as always for the tips! I had been wondering about how to manage fabrics that could potentially stain your doll especially with vinyl dolls as they seem to take to stain like bees to honey!
ReplyDeleteHi Alasse,
DeleteI am so glad this helped you. I know from the Blythe dolls how some get badly stained, fortunately none of mine suffered. :)
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