Color/dye catcher sheets for the washing machine: you can make them quickly at home yourself
Doing the laundry always requires a bit of organization: we wait for enough dirty clothes or linen to accumulate to be able to a wash, and generally, we have to divide the various items according to the type of material they are made of. Perhaps the most important criterion is to separate by colors - or at least to avoid washing white or very light fabrics together with very colorful or very dark ones. Especially if we use washing cycles at medium/high temperatures.
But when there's no time to waste and you can't do separate washes, how can you prevent the dyes from transferring from one garment to another? We can buy dye/color catcher sheets (commercially available). But you could also make them using DIY techniques. Read on to find out how:
What you will need
You will need very few materials:
- Sturdy white fabric, like old sheets, preferably made of cotton. However, you could also try using old, white towels.
- Scissors.
- 1 pyrex jug.
- 250ml of water.
- 1 tablespoon of laundry soda (sodium percarbonate).
- A wooden spoon.
The method
Creativo
- Cut out 10 or 12 squares (they don't need to be very precise), from the fabric.
- Pour the water into the pyrex jug and heat it in the microwave at maximum power for one minute.
- Pour the laundry soda into the water and stir well until it is completely dissolved.
- Immerse the scraps of fabric one by one, using the wooden spoon to soak them thoroughly in the water and laundry soda.
- Wring out each cutout so that it is still wet, but not dripping.
- If there is a lot of water left, cut out more cloth pieces and keep adding them until all the liquid is absorbed.
- Let the fabric scraps dry. It's best if you hang them up (they will dry faster).
When they are perfectly dry, you can store them in airtight containers, away from dust and humidity. Glass jars or food containers are also good for this purpose.
Once dry, you can use them like normal color/dye catcher sheets, and you might be able to reuse them too.
