Monday, February 27, 2012

Soft Scrub Experiment


I have been wanting to try Soft Scrub as a discharge agent and this month gave me a good reason to finally get around to it.  I also have been wanting to try discharging on a patchwork piece of fabric.  I like the idea of the material being different but the discharge pattern going across the different fabrics to uniet them.  



I used a block leftover from this quilt.

And here are my results. 

I am underwhelmed.  It is much more subtle than I would have gotten from either bleach or Decolourant.  This actually shows two attempts. The first time I stamped the dry fabric and let it sit for about 15 minutes before washing it out with water.  I could see very little change. So I stamped the wet fabric again and let it sit for about 30 minutes.  Still when I washed it out, there did not seem to be much change.  To neutralize the bleach, I put the fabric in hydrogen peroxide--more expensive than anti-clor but still not expensive and I had it on hand--and let it sit for a couple of hours.

Here are two detail shots.  I do plan to use the same stamp with some thickened dye before calling the block finished.

10 comments:

  1. I have done some work with the soft scrub and with the bleach pen. Both have worked nicely with my fabrics. I was able to really control where the discharge medium went on the fabric and did some kokopelli designs for an iguana hanging.

    glen

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  2. Are you using commercial fabrics that have not been washed. Their might be a coating that prevent s more discharge. Softscrub works really well with hand-dyed fabrics. I like it because I can use it with thermofax screens.

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  3. It has certainly done more damage to my clothing when 'i accidentally splash it on them when cleaning!I panicked when I saw the quilt up top that you were going to discharge on the entire quilt! I love that piece!

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  4. I have used soft scrub, and also dishwashing gel with bleach, and my results varied. I like the consistency of both, but I agree that it does better on hand-dyed than commercial fabrics. Also, I usually leave it on until it's completely dry before washout.

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  5. Hmmm. Based on these results, I wouldn't bother trying discharging with soft scrub, but based on the comments, I would give it a try on hand-dyed fabric.

    Thanks for posting this!

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  6. A woman in one of my classes started me on toilet bowl cleaner - now I use that instead of soft scrub. Works great! All these products work best when fresh - if it has been sitting around awhile the bleach loses strength.

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  7. The block has both commercial dyed fabric and hand dyes. The commercial yellow in the bottom detail shot bleached out to white very easily. The commercial black bleached out to a red. My hand dyed black bleached out to a yellow-green. The commercial red fabric even bleached out which surprised me. And the off-white commercial fabric bleached out to white.

    I think the main issue at work here is that the pieced fabric has such high contrast sewn into it that the bleached areas do not show to good effect. I think if this was a plain black piece of fabric--either commercial or hand dyed--the stamped bleached "0" would be very prominent.

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  8. In my experience, the soft scrub needs to be new. It looses strength as it sits. I have also misted the soft scrub to keep it damp longer to give it more time to work. Once it is dry it doesn't seem to do any more bleaching.

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  9. I love using SoftScrub with Bleach in discharging because it is paste-y and works well with freezer paper masking. So, when I read this post I immediately got out my trusty SS (purchased in DEC 2010) and retried it. It was successful with the exception of the timing. Fresh, it only took 3 min...now it takes about 7. I apply mine thickly using a plastic card and it starts out on a layer of plastic bag and ends with a layer of plastic on top. (No spraying needed. I also work the SS into the exposed fabric by gently manipulating it with my fingers.

    In my experience with bleach/SS discharge...I have found that some commercial fabrics have been downright stubborn even when I have painted directly with undiluted bleach!

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