Accidentally put something dark in with a white wash. Is there any way to rescue it or should I just put it all in the bin?

[michelleseashell]

I put a dark cloth in with my whites last night and this morning everything is gray, very gray. Is there any hope of rescue?

Is it stuff that you could wash at 90 degrees? There are also some stain removers you can use. If you get some sunny days it may be worth sticking the stuff out on a washing line to see if the sun can bleach it a bit too. If all else fails, could you buy some dylon dye and reinvent your clothes in another colour?

do not wash it in hot water, hot water fixes dyes. soak it in cold water then try one of those colour run things.

Glowhite?

and similar rescue stuff - stain devils etc?

agree with hanging out, if it is sunny - does work wonders sometimes

You can buy a pack of colour run remover in just about any supermarket. They are easy to use, and work. Sadly we have used them many times, most often because of stray red school socks, but also black.

It's already been washed on a very hot wash. Has that likely ruined it for good then?

A couple of things were lights too like light blue and green, would a dye remover work on them or just fade them?

Dye remover won't fade anything, so it's probably worth a try - it just removes "loose" dye from them, not the main colour. But unfortunately hot water tends to "fix" the dye to the cloth, so the hot wash is more likely to have made the dye permanent I'm afraid.

Oh no. Thanks everyone. Some bits are worse than others so I think i'll try a dye remover on the least worst things. Off to the shops! I'll let you all know how I get on later

Well I couldn't find any dye remover. I've putting some of it on a cold wash with stain remover and whitener and it seems a little bit better. Oh well. At least it was only towels and baby clothes.

If you're going to pop it on the line in the sun, soak it in lemon juice first, it works as a natural bleach. We resuced a lovely white knitted dress of DD's doing that after a disaster with spag bol and no bib!

Thanks, I'll try that. This washing is turning into a project now!

its colour run remover you need to look for - they sell it in my local (fairly small) supermarkets - should be with the other washing products, colour catchers, etc

Dylon do a good colour run remover. Some of the stuff I dyed returned to normal, some didn't, but definitely worth a try

I've had a good look and I can't find it. It's not in our big Sainsburys, the co-op or Tesco. I tried a fabric shop too that sold dylan dyes but no dye remover. Is there anywhere else I could try, like the internet maybe?

If all else fails, dye them a dark colour maybe? Dylon do good machine dyes so no buckets etc. Navy or maroon towels might look a bit better than grey!

I can't believe a big Sainsbos or Tescos wouldn't have one of the brands (dylon, Dr Beckman or iirc Stain Devils) but anyhow, amazon has some.

I haven't actually had to use any since a red sock went in hot wash with DHs work shirts over 20 years ago - he is not the sort of bloke to wear pink! But I've always kept some in the cupboard since that awful event.
It did the job on the pure white shirts but did fade the striped ones.

I know! They had a whole ton of stain removers but no dye remover.

Grimma is your name from Truckers? I love that book!

of course, where else!

I love the thing, especially when it sighs with it's lights! I used to want one when I was young.

Bleach them! Soak overnight in a soltion of bleach and water.Rinse them thoroughly afterwards and then wash them -have to do this regularly with white school polo tops.

Try Robert Dyas for colour run remover it works very well and don't worry too much about the hot wash as allthough you use hot water and salt when dying fabric a hot wash will often remove dye.

I have a home dyed skirt that only leaks dye if put on a hot 40+ wash so I wash it on a cold wash and no dye comes out.

I rescued a dress that a friend had ruined by putting it through a hot 50 wash with biological powder and giving it lots of rinses, it came up good as new but colour run remover is the best option.

unfortunately the sooner you tackle the problem the better the results!