This is 4 yards of Black Neoprene from BigZFabric, ordered on July 3rd. At this stage I am soaking the whole piece in a clear bin with HOT water and about half a box of table salt. I'm going to let this soak for a few hours. Currently the water is brown/red in color after 10 min

Water was a little darker at the 3 hour mark. Going to give it a regular wash with some white fabrics to see how it holds up.

Regular warm wash (not hot, but not cold) I wanted to see if the warmer temp would cause more color leeching.

Photos of the fabrics before hand, and the washer settings. See yall in 45 minutes!

Yikes on a bike guys. @BigZFabric your black neoprene is going to be on people black lists if we can't figure something out. This is absolutely awful.

Here's a photo after the first wash with the black neoprene. Top is fresh cut fabrics. Left to right we have: Spandex, neoprene, minky, beaver fur and long pile. This isn't looking good. 😣

Second wash, same number and variation of swatches, same detergent, only washing on cold now. The neoprene now would be considered a "pre-washed" fabric as it's completed a full wash and dry cycle. Let's see how this goes!

Second wash results. The white neoprene got a bit more color somehow, the minky is a little bit lighter, the furs are the same. The black neoprene is back in the dryer, the next treatment will be salt + vinegar + dawn dish soap + a wash/dry cycle.

OKAY so after some research & a ton of people offering suggestions (thank you!) Im doing multiple spins/rinses on just the fabric. Hot water, 5 rinses, medium spin and medium soil. After this I will run the same cycle a second time. I'm trying to get as much color out as possible

Here are my results so far. I am seeing zero change from the 2nd wash to the 4th. Currently the neoprene is soaking in vinegar and will overnight. I will update tomorrow.

After 20 hours soaking in a 28L tub with 6L of vinegar and 1 cup of salt, the water is clear. No color at all. I gave it a rinse in ice cold water and now it's in the wash on cold with detergent to get the vinegar smell out. (Side note, I now crave fish and chips 🤣)

Bad news guys. The vinegar did nothing. Here is a close up of the beaver fur from wash 1 and wash 5 as a comparison for color too (the control is on the top)

Next will be doing a rit dye fixative and see how that goes. But I am away for the weekend. Please DM or comment any suggestions you may have. At this point I can't reccomend black neoprene for anything, even on a black suit, if this much comes out, it will wear off on skin too😓

Here is where we are at!

Surprise! The 4 color catcher sheets did nothing 😒 They turned a nice grey too but the fur is still stained. I have the swatches soaking too, but I don't have faith in that either.

This is getting impractical, but here I am stirring neoprene soup in my laundry room trying commercial grade Retayne to see if that helps

Re-upload! Twitter cropped out the first half of the video. Ugh!

@FFAFursuits The only way I’ve managed to dye and color stay polyester materials is with a combination of: salt, vinegar, and dawn dish soap All in a boiling lobster pot for like 30min-60min. Then I had to wash it 4-6 times cause it was a fresh dye.

@Munashii808 I will add this to my list of things to try! Thanks so much!

@FFAFursuits Bookmarking for future reference!

@Zythe_Akaru Thanks! Hopefully I can help others!

@FFAFursuits I tested joanns neoprene the same way and it didnt bleed a drop! Too bad its 30$ a yard tho...

@OmnidadCreation I tested by putting mine in a front load washer with tide cold water detergent for a normal cycle at 41 minutes long, not hand washing or soaking alone. I'm curious to see the results of a similar laundry cycle

@FFAFursuits Silly Q, is there any reason why you wouldn't use white neoprene for the bulk of the suit and then colored neoprene to match fur at the openings?

@Bacoose Not silly at all! Many makers like to use black as much as possible because it won't show dirty sweat stains like white does. (If you have a white t-shirt, take a look at the arm pits over time) That's pretty much it! Some makers use similar colors to the furs so it matches too!

@FFAFursuits Thank you for this experiment!

@SoraHusky I'm gonna keep going till we figure this out!

@FFAFursuits Does anyone know how to get the stains out though?

@Smallbunthing I have some extra samples from my first wash that I'm gonna do some tests on as well. I've seen others use bleach and had some success, I haven't tested it myself yet. The problem will still happen if both fabrics are sewn together, just something to keep in mind :)