Hand Washing a Tatted Doily

Recently, God's Kid discovered that one of my colorways (Queen Anthias) was bleeding color when she went to block it.
This of course caused concern on my part of many levels.  1st a business related level, I would hate to be selling something that wasn't top notch.  2nd a personal level, I am currently tatting a doily that I hope will be an heirloom, as it is going to be a wedding present and it has some dark pink thread in it, used with the exact same dyes that were bleeding on God's Kid's bookmark.

I fretted over this tremendously as I formulated a battle plan.  I considered cutting the whole section out and replacing it with another thread.  But, I said.. "No!"  I must have faith in my own product enough to carry this thing out and then wash it.  So, that's what I did!

Here is the doily, which may be finished at this point, I don't know, before washing.

And a close up of the row in question.

So, I started by prepping the area.  I picked up some Shout Color Catchers for a little added measure, I put two of them at the bottom of my "washing tub" (rubbermaid container) and I had the Dawn nearby.

I filled the tub with hot, but not boiling, in fact, I could have gone hotter.  This tub is pretty shallow, so the water cooled off faster than I would have liked.  It started out uncomfortable to the touch though.  I went ahead poured plenty of Dawn in the water (hence the suds)

Plopped in the doily

And because I was being obsessive.... threw in 2 more color catchers... lol

But... the color catchers didn't get a chance to pick up any loose dyes.  Which is about the point that I really regretted wasting all those sheets of color catchers. 

Then I poured off the water..

Rinsed it off and spotted it dry on a paper towel

The paper towel was clean as well.

So, my conclusion is that if you have one of my earlier colorways, to maybe use some color catchers when you wash them.  Or, use them anyway as a precaution.  

I think my method of cleaning the thread has probally gotten better as a whole which is why this one didn't bleed and the Queen Anthias did.  The scientist in me knows though that it could be a great many things.  We tend to have soft water, so I have no way of testing how the dyes hold up in harder water.  

This is something I would really like to know though.  

Also, feel free to comment with your suggestions on either how you wash your tatting, or ways that I can continue to test the colorfastness of my own.

Thanks!

<3

OH!! And thank you so much to Martha for helping me out by sending me the Silver thread I needed to finish up on the silver row on the doily!  You were a life saver!

I did eventually find the silver thread.... 

Apparently Layla had knocked it unto the floor and then proceeded to play with it under the coffee table lol.

AND!

Another big thank you to Ladytats for the Rhubarb!

I can know say that I baked a pie and had rhubarb pie, both of which I am really excited about!

Rhubarb pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie