New towel bled onto my my duvet

October 18, 2021 8:45 AM

How do I get a stain out after it's been dried? The offender: A new orange towel. The victim: my cotton duvet cover.

I unknowingly washed a brand new orange towel with my cotton partially-white duvet cover, in hot water, then dried in a hot dryer. The duvet cover (and matching shams) now have a blotches of peach color all over.

The duvet has a white base color but otherwise a colorful pattern all over, so bleaching is out of the question. The splotches are all over, some easier to see than others, so I'd really like to avoid spot-treating this as it will take forever and I'll probably miss a lot of it.

I'd love a solution that will allow for an all-over treatment. Can I just let this soak in a tub with oxyclean? Any particular variety of oxyclean (I've never used oxyclean actually). Then do I dry it? Try to air dry it? What am I supposed to do?

As a person who is pushing 40, it's embarrassing not to know the solution, but I always wear black and wash cold and send out my lightercolored linens. This time was a fluke.

I really like this particular duvet cover and it's no longer available online/in-store so I'd love to try to salvage it.

posted by greta simone to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

You can buy colour run products for exactly this, that you put in the machine with the stained item - Dylon version, Dr Beckmann version - it's maybe a bigger ask once it's been put through a hot drier, but worth a go.
posted by penguin pie at 9:33 AM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

Oxyclean should work. You can look for the color safe varieties but I'm not sure how different they are.
I never soaked, just did several runs to progressively de-pink my lab coat (with colored embroidery), and it's not perfect but it doesn't look blatantly pink anymore. The embroidery looks unchanged.
posted by cobaltnine at 10:29 AM on October 18, 2021

Rit makes a dye remover. Literally described exactly for this purpose.
posted by Crystalinne at 10:49 AM on October 18, 2021

I'd avoid putting the item in the dryer until it's the color you want it to be- heat can set dye / stains. You can just air dry (out of the sun) if you want to see whether a dye-removal tactic succeeded, then wash again as needed.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:29 PM on October 18, 2021

If the pattern is printed, it's most likely that the bleach will not harm it at all. Try it out in a hidden spot, such as an inside seam, with just the tiniest amount of bleach on a Qtip.

Source: I use bleach to make interesting patterns on T-shirts, or change their colours entirely. I have bleached a dark blue shirt pale enough to dye it bright red. The print is as radiant as before.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:32 PM on October 18, 2021

Response by poster: Also probably relevant, I live in a small apartment without access to a washer or a place to really air dry a large duvet cover. I go to a laundromat. So ideally this will be a one-and-done solution, so I can then wash and dry.
posted by greta simone at 1:55 PM on October 18, 2021

I have had this happen with older thrift store items (dyed deep pink or red) and light towels. The color comes right out after one or two normal washes, nothing special required, although washing in cold may get it out faster. Just don't wash your involuntarily dyed item with vinegar, which is used to set home dye jobs.
posted by Crystal Fox at 2:44 PM on October 18, 2021

Response by poster: Well. I tried RIT. Turns out some of the print was actually dye so now my pillow shams don't match my duvet bc 1 of the 5 colors washed out. Soooooo, yeah, had to buy a new set. Next time I'll try oxyclean before going straight to RIT. Alas.
posted by greta simone at 3:19 PM on November 9, 2021