Chinese Ebay Dresses - washing them

[katz in boots]

I have read recent threads about people buying dresses off eBay from China. Seems to be a range of satisfaction levels with the garments.

I notice that many of these dresses feature a dipped effect, where the skirts either gets darker or lighter towards the hem, and wonder how people are finding these stand up to washing.

Reason I ask is that a lady at our rink bought one for her grand daughter, on first washing the dye ran badly. It can still be worn, but probably not for a competition.

How have others fared with washing these shaded dresses, are they colourfast or do they run?

[flo]

That's very odd. When I paint my dresses I typically have no problems. I can suggest that if you're worried, you could throw the dress in the dryer first, or iron it, as many of the paints are heat set.

[sk8lady]

I'd guess these are dyed, rather than painted--they would need to be washed with a dyefast washing soap such as Synthropol.

[flo]

Synthropol is great. Many of the dyes are also heat fixed.