Now What? You need to Cure and then Wash Out

This sounds like a title for some medical problem, but it's not, we're still finishing our dyeing. Since you now have made your wonderful creations and they have had a nice ride home with you, here are the instructions for finishing the job.

Once you combined the dye concentrates with the fabric, you leave the fabric to cure or batch. That simply means you're leaving the dyes to work their magic. This step can take from one hour to 24 hours (or longer if your work space is very cold). I recommend 3 hours or more. If your work space is below 75 degrees F, you will want to leave the fabric longer to ensure the dyes have time to react. Go watch your favorite show, go to another class or just have some fun. If you don't get back to the dyed fabric until a day or two later it's no problem.

Basically, once you’re done batching or curing the fabric (which really just means waiting while the dye does its stuff), you will pour off the liquid (dye solution) and discard it since it's almost powerless now (unless you want to use it for some unpredictable pastel shades on more fabric), squeeze out the fabric and place it in clear, cold water to rid the excess dye. Be sure to wear your gloves as the dye can still stain your hands.

The rinsing procedure:
1. Take the first fabric cup/bag and pour the dye solution down the drain.
2. Turn on the cold water tap.
3. Rinse out the empty dye cup and put it in the trash.
4. Run the water over your fabric piece, squeezing out the liquid. And open it up to see how lovely the colors are! Notice how much dye runs out--this will get lighter and lighter as you go.
5. When you've squeezed oodles of dye out of the fabric piece, put it in the fabric rinse bucket. Keep going until you've rinsed all your fabrics. This is the initial rinse.
6. This first rinsing step can be quick or long, depending on the recipe. Some batches are done after one good rinsing, some take several. Be patient and do it right. You do not want beautiful hand-dyed fabrics if they are going to run and ruin your quilt.
-Reds/pinks are notorious for requiring a lot of rinsing.
7. You can place the fabrics in a rinse bucket of cold water and leave them for hours, days or weeks. The excess dye will gradually leave the fabrics. When you next have time, just pour out the dirty water, squeeze out the fabrics and put them in a fresh bucket of cold water. Repeat until the water is clear after the fabrics have been soaking a while (minutes if you're stirring them in the water to assist the process, and after a few hours if you're leaving them to soak unattended).
8. Time for the final wash and rinse. Using cold water and New Dawn, Dawn, Joy, or equivalent liquid dish-washing detergent (1 teaspoon per yard or two of fabric) or Synthropol. Wash the fabric and then rinse one final time in a bucket of cold water. The rinse water must be clear or you are NOT DONE. Repeat until the rinse water is clear.
9. When the rinse water is completely clear it is time to dry the fabric. If you’ll be hanging your fabrics to dry, do not use wooden clothes pegs --they pick up dye and can stain your fabric. Use plastic ones instead.

Probably the greatest concern people have with hand-dyed fabric is whether the fabrics are going to bleed/run dye. If you follow the steps here properly, you should not have to worry about this.
Between the rinsing and the liquid dish-washing detergent used to grab any excess dye out of the fabric in the rinse process, your fabrics should be colorfast.