What am I doing wrong?

yogabird

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 5:36 pm

Any off-white article of clothing I have turns grayish in the wash. Well, not really grayish, but the yellow tint fades after 1 or 2 washes, and the color it turns is not exactly white. Sort of like white laundry that's been washed too many times. Dingy.

I always wash them with other white/light items in warm water with Oxyclean and tide.

mazal555

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 6:57 pm

Polyester?

mazal555

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 6:59 pm

If it's cotton I got my color back by washing it on hot. And I don't like tide maybe try 7th generation and 7th generation chlorine free bleach. They are HE so in the end it's not much more expensive.

yogabird

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 9:03 pm

Mostly cotton.

You mean the it turns back into off-white by washing it on hot? I can't see that happening. The discoloration is definitely due to fading/lightening of some sort. They're not dingy looking because they haven't washed well, but because the color washed out. Is ivory dye just not colorfast?

mazal555

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 9:35 pm

No, I thought that also but it is actually dingy because of residues. When you wash the cotton fibers on hot the fibers swell and then the residues loosen. I have found it needs to be 60 Celsius. I had the same thing. I was washing my ivory and light yellow and white tees together on warm in a frontloader and overloading the machine. It was shared and the others in the building used phos. detergents. I had the same dingyness and so I washed them with 7th generation in hot as a last resort and I only half filled the machine and they came out like new.

zaq

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 9:41 pm

Synthetics always state wash in cold or warm water to minimize wrinkling, but for dazzling whites or ivories, you need hot water.

You may have a hard water problem and/or be using too much detergent. Under these circumstances, the detergent and dirt form a kind of agglomerate that precipitates out of the water and redeposits on the fabric, turning it "tattletale grey". Try a cycle in hot water without product, and add some plain white vinegar to help dissolve the residue. In fact, you should add some vinegar to the final rinse every time you wash.

And never, ever, EVER wash white or ivory with anything but white or ivory. Not even a baby pink hankie that's been washed a hundred times. Tiny molecules of color are released into the water with every wash and deposit on other fabrics. Yes, even colorfast fabrics do this. We're talking on the molecular level here. This turns whites and ivories tattletale grey. If you've been washing yur ivory textiles with other light colors, that's your problem right there.

Try RIT Color Remover, which is formulated to remove excess dye that has bled onto other fabrics, like when your new red washcloths accdentally end up in the wash with your white undies. It will also remove, if a bit less successfully, those bits of fugitive dye from whites that have been washed with other colorfast colors. It does not, however, make old fabrics look new.

You may also want to try using old-fashioned bluing in the final rinse, which makes whites look whiter. However, if what you prize is the yellowish aspect, bluing is not for you, since bluing davka shifts the spectrum from yellowish to bluish.

yogabird

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 11:20 pm

zaq wrote:

If you've been washing yur ivory textiles with other light colors, that's your problem right there.

So my daughters off white tee with the tiny yellow and periwinkle flowers and my sons off white romper with the teal fishies design are doomed from the start?

smily

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 11:43 pm

Its possible that the ozyclean is fading the color.

mazal555

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 1:56 am

yogabird wrote:

So my daughters off white tee with the tiny yellow and periwinkle flowers and my sons off white romper with the teal fishies design are doomed from the start?

That is my general experience

invisiblecircus

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 4:59 am

I have never had a problem putting White or off-White garmets with a tiny PRINTED design on in the same wash as plain whites, but I wouldn't add anything with coloured dyes in, even light colours. I put pastel colours on a separate wash.

I know what OP means about the Ivory/ cream coloured garmets turning white though. I've had shells, T-shirts, socks and tights for my daughter in Ivory and they've all faded noticeably after the first wash and less so after subsequent washes. It was really noticeable with the socks which were from a multi-pack because I had to take care to match each sock with one that had been washed the same amount of times!

I haven't found a solution and it doesn't actually bother me as I prefer the lighter colour anyway but I also wondered whether the Ivory dye is just not colour fast. I also was them using a detergent meant for whites which includes bicarbonate of soda so that might be effectively bleaching them.

zaq

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 10:33 pm

yogabird wrote:

So my daughters off white tee with the tiny yellow and periwinkle flowers and my sons off white romper with the teal fishies design are doomed from the start?

Alas, yes.
Unless you wash them individually by hand, and even then there are no guarantees.