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From: Kevin
Susan, Bleeding can be generally two things. One, the wrong type of dye may have been used for the type of fabric. There are many different types of dyes and some set better than others in different materials. In other words the dye used could be compatible with the cotton but not with the poly. Therefore it's bleeding from the poly. Second, Sometimes to achieve a dark or rich color an excess of dye may have been used. Lets say a fiber contains 100 pores for the dye to collect in. If you put enough dye on to fill 50 of those pores you may have light green color, if you fill 100 of them you end up with a medium green, but if you keep adding even more dye and start a build up of excess dye coating the fiber, you'll end up with this rich dark green. Unfortunately the excess is not stabilized in any dye sites and therefore will bleed. The most likely situation is that this sweatshirt has excess dye. In regards to the cleaning. Both salt and vinegar are used to set/and or stabilize dyes. However, if the sweatshirt has excess dye and all the dye sites are full, bleeding will still occur. Cold water washing could also reduce bleeding. (The hotter the water, the more likely it will bleed). But, Unfortunately, even taken all these precautions there still is no sure way of knowing if it's going to bleed or not. Dry cleaning is probably going to be your safest bet and even with that there is no guarantee. Dry cleaning uses solvency which doesn't contain the same properties as water and detergents. The dyes used are more likely to be water soluble than solvent soluble. So, my recommendation would be to dry clean. I may also suggest that you return the item to the store as you have followed mfg. instructions and I believe that this product may be defective, and the store would probably refund your money. I hope this answers your questions. Thank You! Alec..