mask bib- washing and bleeding colors

[MyraTrue]

I ended up buying a pair of used masks in fairly good shape off a club I fence with. The bibs could use a wash, but the trouble is, the lining is red and it bleeds on jacket collar etc when things get too sweaty. I could simply wash it, but the rest of it would turn pink. Any suggestions?

I know that the colored uniform is becoming permissable, but seriously, I'm not looking for a pink mask to join the controversy...

"That woman's pink bib is distracting me! Make her take it off!"

Myra

[Wizardly]

<ponder> don't they sell those color catching sheets you can put in the laundry to absorb bleeding colors?

[MyraTrue]

Its worth looking! That might help, if not do the trick. Pink isn't exactly my favorite color, and my brother might get more than he bargained for when he got HIS mask back pink.

Myra

[downunder]

argh..... reminds me of a time when i put my whole kit in to wash, and accidently put my glove in too.....

my glove was one of the allstar red ones, and i made a point to never wash it with anything else, as i knew it would bleed.

However, the only thing the colors caught on were the elastic straps of my breeches. So i had pink straps for a while.

[MyraTrue]

Oh... ****e... They're pink allright.

Thanks for the input, I figure it helped at least a little. Now, I have to make pink a "manly fencer" kind of color, or I'm going to be challenging a LOT of people to bouts of epee.

Myra

[remise]

You can spray the colored part of the mask that you DON'T want to bleed with a color fixative - i.e., matt varnish. Spray it several times and allow it to dry completely. Then you can wash the dickens out of it without it bleeding.

One note, though. The varnish will eventually break down. I suggest you "touch up" your job every once in a while, depending on how often you intend to wash your mask. I wash my son's mask with a blue interior weekly, and so I touch his up every 2 months or so.