You know tops which are dark but have a white stripe...

[SlinkyB]

How are you meant to wash them?! I vowed to stop buying them, as never know whether they go on a dark wash/light wash/white wash.

I've bought ds2 some t-shirt vests which are a bright bold red...with white stripes. I know the stripes will either turn pink or go a yucky grey colour, as I daren't put them in with the whites and risk all the other stuff turning pink.

Why will I never learn?

I put them with mixed colours, i.e. things that aren't either light or dark. Once I'm satisfied that they don't run I'll relax a bit about exactly what goes in with them.

What does the label thing say? I sometimes hand wash these types of clothing to see how hot the water can go before colour starts to leek.

I'm supposed to read labels? Dunno, will look tomorrow though.

Hand washing the first couple of times sounds good, see if loads of red oozes out.

I used to be super slack and bung everything in together, but thanks to some heavily dyed black jeans of dh's, I'm trying to be more careful.

Hand wash, Luke warm water, and bung some salt in, stops the colour running.

Ooh, not heard of salt - thanks for the tip!

I buy those colour run sheet things.....colour catchers, I think they're called? About £1.50 for a box of 10 (I think) in Home bargains, then I put one or two of them in a mixed colours wash. They've always come out fine.

Colour catchers are definitely what you need! I use them all the time now with anything patterned or striped, they are brilliant! I would put red/white striped t shirts in with other brights and with a colour catcher.

What I do is:

buy them.
Wear them once.
Forget when I'm washing them
spend hours swearing and attempting to rescue.
Manage the rescue.
Wear again.
Forget again.
Spend hours trying to rescue
Get pissed off and throw away.
Vow never to buy anything so stupid in my life again.

Buy similar top.
Repeat cycle.

Another vote for colour catchers, no problems with running colours.

I tend to assume that the colour's not going to run as long as they're in a normal wash (not hotter than 40 degrees), so put them in a 'light' or mixed colours wash.

I knew from the title that the question would be about washing. I bloody hate clothes like this. I'm really anal about separating lights, whites, darks and bright colors and they give me no end of grief over what pile they should go in. I tend to avoid buying stuff like now. DH or DD will pick up stuff and go 'ooh that's nice' and I say 'put it down! That presents a Washing nightmare!'

SteveBruce that is exactly what I do! Had temporary amnesia in Mothercare the other week though

Bought a pack of 24 Dylon colour catchers in Wilko the other day so will try those as well as the salt soak method. And maybe only wash with old towels the first couple of times.

Cheers all.

I put 'em in with the darks

These do my head in. Even worse are the boys tops that you can get with a fake double layer - white long sleeves with a short sleeved t-shirt over the top. People seemed to buy us loads of these when DS was a baby. I used to get so annoyed trying to wash them - once I'd attempted to get mystery baby related orange stains off the bottoms of the long white sleeves, they would then end up looking grubby anyway due to being in a dark wash, or the coloured t-shirt bit would tint everything in a whites wash. Colour catchers help a lot, but white stripey tops and those much hated kids tops still end up looking grubby eventually.

I don't buy them in the first place...
if I had one I would put it in the darker load, I think.

Do you have a freshen up cycle? Use that for a few washes on their own. Then bung in with lights.

Goodness me, I can't believe you all resist buying clothes you like, because of worrying that the colours might run!
I do a whites wash and a colours wash. In the whites wash goes only things that are totally white or very pale. Everything else (including many stripy things) goes in the colours wash. I've never ever had a problem

Olivia / Curls and Co; does no-one in your household have heavily-dyed black/navy jeans though? They're usually the culprit when the white stripes come out manky.

afink, yup, those tops be buggers too, put one in a mostly-pastel-but-a-few-brights wash today. You want a decent temp to rid the white sleeves of dirt, but don't want to fade the dark bit or risk them running.

Can't believe I'm talking so much about laundry...what happened to meeeeee?!

I do a load of stripeys. We wear a lot of stripes so do at least one load of them. Sorry,not helpful. If I had to add to another wash I'd always go lighter than darker.

I always put them in the white wash. They are designed that the coloured section doesn't bleed when washed or else it would bleed into the white section on the top let alone anything else you wash it with!

I do a separate jeans wash rather than putting them in with darks, then I have a light wash and a dark wash. Stuff like you describe goes in with darks the first couple of times then moves into lights once I'm sure the colour won't run.

I'm a bit slack with separating washing, just into datks and lights, and I never have these problems. Neither does my mother who washes everything together, towels included. I do use colour liquid, maybe that's why? It's from Aldi and I wash at 40. I would generally put a top with a light stripe in with the lights as I thought in this situation the brighter colour would be colour fast.

Like Bodiddly, I put them in with the lights wash on the basis that the coloured section is designed not to bleed into the white section. No problems with them so far!

Colour run sheets best thing since sliced bread as they say I loves them things stay colour meant to be but put them in a small net bag or the nuggets clog the machine

I separate into whites, darks (ie black/navy/grey etc) and coloureds. I'd put them in the coloured one.