The Doll Forum

1 gallon water
1/4 cup table salt
1 cup vinegar
Soak for 30 min.
You'll be amazed.
Sometimes takes a second application but rarely more than that.

Try an experiment-
Buy two of the same el cheapo China piece on Amazon.
Soak it in Dawn and hot water. You'll see a bunch of color bleed.
Same garment-repeat several times. You'll see bleed after bleed after bleed.

Take second identical soak in my recipe of water, salt, vinegar.
In many cases, that's it. No bleed at all and the dye will be set.
Sometimes takes a second application for the really vile dye's but never more than that.

End clothing dye stain transfer to TPE forever.
Be amazed and send me some money (lol)
Dollyman

Thanks so much for sharing this! I love black clothing and have limited to almost none the times Ivana has worn any.

I can't wait to try this and if it works, my suggestion will be to have your name placed upon the alter of the most high of dolly gods...

tman2016 wrote:I can't wait to try this and if it works, my suggestion will be to have your name placed upon the alter of the most high of dolly gods...

Chuckle!
I am a GOLDEN GOD!
Opps, I just "dated" my age....
Actually just learnt of this hack not long ago and tested it a buncha times before posting.
Works like a champ. Blew me away.
Jolene got wet and giddy

Sorry for the late response, not meaning to zombie the thread, but I've heard of this "hack" before. I've read online that it's just a myth, but most of those sites are talking about color bleed in laundry when you actually wash the fabric. I doubt they had TPE love dolls in mind when they did their testing. That having been said, based on their evidence combined with your evidence, would it be safe to assume that this dye lock should be performed every time you wash the garment? It seems that, based on the myth busting articles, the dye lock doesn't hold up when washing. Maybe washing loosens the dyes and they need to be locked again to avoid bleeding. Have you any experience with this?

Also, there are several types of vinegar out there. I'm assuming distilled white/cleaning vinegar, but what type of vinegar should be used?

I'm partial to dark clothing myself and every time I go shopping for my girl I see an outfit I love, but stop myself because it's black. So further clarification on this would be very helpful.

Thanks for necroing this topic.

That method is good for ‘fixing’ the dye when in contact with water but many of the problems with dark clothing on TPE (and indeed silicone) is from the oils exuded which tend to dissolve the die in a way water won’t! I wouldn’t rely solely on this method if you leave dark clothing on her for any length of time!

Cheers, Hollows.

Interesting idea... we need some brave soul to do a bit of on-the-doll testing for us.

hey manufacturers. You should send some sample skin patches along with the doll so these guys can test clothes they buy

Well it works but I wouldn't go so far as to risk leaving dark clothing on.
When this hack is done, (sometimes takes a few soaks), the color stops bleeding. White vinegar is best.
A previous post mentioned that TPE oils can "soak up" color and that could be true even in "hacked" clothing. I wonder if anyone has a big piece of TPE they would be willing to perform an experiment on?

marlyg wrote:hey manufacturers. You should send some sample skin patches along with the doll so these guys can test clothes they buy

I've been using the inserts I got with my doll to do color testing.

I've tested two different pieces of black clothing (without the hack): one piece that left no stains after leaving it wrapped for a couple days and one piece that stained within a few hours. The fabric seems to play a major role as well. One is a night shirt made of 100% cotton and it left no stains. The other is a black jumper skirt that has no tag on it, so I'm not entirely sure what it's made of, but it feels like polyester; that's the piece that stained in just a few hours. The shirt was made in India and bought at a US brick'n'mortar store. The skirt was purchased online from an Asian fashion site. So the dying process and standards might also play a part in this story as well. I'm eager to give this hack a try on the skirt and see if it does anything. It's a cute outfit, but as quickly as it stained, it will most decidedly not be left on her for any length of time, even after I try this hack.

As an added bonus, bleed testing has produced a pretty dark stain on my insert, so it's giving me a nice testing ground for stain removal tips as well.

The staining tends to occur where the clothes are tight or where there’s pressure on it. TPE is a bit like a sponge so when it’s squeezed a tiny bit of oil comes out. So, stains tend to occur more in the groin area, underarms, around the waist or underneath where your lady is sitting or laying. The best way to avoid this in my opinion is to powder well before putting any clothing on (her!) and/or use a white undergarment if you can! Obviously, this is hard if the clothes are underwear so don’t leave those on too long!

It does seem to be certain types of cloth that stain more than others! I put leather on Vivette last year and it only took a couple of minutes to stain! Some satin clothes don’t seem to stain at all!

As said, it would be good to have something to do some tests on as it is upsetting when this occurs, even if the stain can be removed or it fades after a while. Maybe an old very broken and unrepairable doll could be donated to this cause!

An insert could be a slightly different formula to the doll body so I would be wary of using that too much as a guide! I was going to do an ‘oil’ test after my staining last year but Christmas got in the way. I did wonder if baby oil or Vaseline might extract some of the die but never got round to trying them!

Cheers, Hollows.

Wouldn't you have to redo the solution after washing the treated clothing?

I always use a barrier with dark clothing, that and frequent washing. Brandy's been a real trooper when it comes to helping me learn about TPE.

hollows+fentiman wrote:The staining tends to occur where the clothes are tight or where there’s pressure on it. TPE is a bit like a sponge so when it’s squeezed a tiny bit of oil comes out. So, stains tend to occur more in the groin area, underarms, around the waist or underneath where your lady is sitting or laying. The best way to avoid this in my opinion is to powder well before putting any clothing on (her!) and/or use a white undergarment if you can! Obviously, this is hard if the clothes are underwear so don’t leave those on too long!

It does seem to be certain types of cloth that stain more than others! I put leather on Vivette last year and it only took a couple of minutes to stain! Some satin clothes don’t seem to stain at all!

As said, it would be good to have something to do some tests on as it is upsetting when this occurs, even if the stain can be removed or it fades after a while. Maybe an old very broken and unrepairable doll could be donated to this cause!

An insert could be a slightly different formula to the doll body so I would be wary of using that too much as a guide! I was going to do an ‘oil’ test after my staining last year but Christmas got in the way. I did wonder if baby oil or Vaseline might extract some of the die but never got round to trying them!

Cheers, Hollows.

I hadn't thought about the insert being a separate formula. It makes sense that they could be, but I think they'd be close enough for testing.

As for baby oil or Vaseline to extract the dye, I actually attempted this method first. It seemed to have absolutely no effect on the dye. There was another stain removal suggestion in another thread that recommends using Arm & Hammer Whitening toothpaste w/ Baking Soda & Peroxide. I left it on the stain for about 12 hours and cleaned it. It lightened a little bit (at least I think it did, it wasn't much of a difference), but I worry that the oil might have actually been a detriment, setting the stain in place. As you said, TPE is a bit like a sponge, so if anything, I think oil might make the stain harder to treat; absorbing into the TPE and dragging the dye deeper into the skin with it so that other stain removal methods can't actually get to the dye. All speculation, of course. I'm still new to this, I've had my girl less than a week. I'm just testing various things on a piece I don't really care about so that I don't cause issues for her in the future.

Also, thanks for the video MonAmour. I'd love to see more videos uploaded that show users a little more detail on some of these processes. Cleaning, oiling, powdering, for example; I worry a lot that I'm not doing them right with my girl, so I'd love to see quick video demonstrations of some of those processes for new users so they don't end up damaging their dolls during their "learning" phase.

@ Kojima

You're welcome my friend! I have several instructional videos on my YouTube channel

MonAmour wrote:@ Kojima

You're welcome my friend! I have several instructional videos on my YouTube channel

I just checked a few of them out, actually. The powdering video was primarily what I was looking for. You even answered/confirmed the major question I had about powdering: the smooth feeling is the end goal for powdering. I think I might be over powdering her a little bit, but you also mention that newer dolls sometimes require more frequent powderings, so that might contribute to her seeming to require more powder to completely get rid of the tacky feeling and achieve the smooth feeling. Thanks!