The bottle of bleach fell off the washer during the spin cycle and landed on top of a new pair of True Religion jeans. What can I do to make the jeans look OK? I'm considering washing them in 1:3 bleach wash to lighten the entire thing. The spots are large circles on each leg at the bottom, near the hems. Help! They cost too much to lose them!
Kim from Tampa, FL
I'd be very tempted to remove all the color from the jeans, whether that's a 1:3 ratio or 1:2. You might have to de-color them several times. DON'T USE FULL STRENGTH. Now you've got fairly white denim to work with.
At this point, I'd dye them back to blue or black (whatever the color was) with good old Rit dye and that might take several "dyeings" to get the darkness to your liking. I would not even attempt spot dying.
Good luck. (I know just how valuable that brand is. Too bad it wasn't Levi's, huh?) (03/03/2009)
I had the same thing happen and I just balled up the jeans in the sink and soaked them in a 1:2 mix of bleach and water. The end result was an all over pattern that looked like a wrinkled paper bag; it was so cool! And it got rid of the bleach spill that stood out and looked ugly. If you are brave enough, this is a fun way to fix the problem. You can try it on a rag first and see the effect I'm talking about before you commit to doing it on your jeans! Good luck!
Lee in FL (03/04/2009)
By Lee Taylor
Kim, you could try dyeing them with denim blue fabric dye. What do you have to lose? Be sure to follow the directions well. And another tip is, after you dye them, and rinse well. Soak them in vinegar and salt for about 30 minutes and then wash as usual.
This soaking also helps to keep new clothes from fading and keep whites whiter, longer.
(03/04/2009)
The tie-bleach idea is gnarly. But it could weaken fabric and stitching to the point that the garment would soon develop holes and fall apart. Rit sells a color remover which is much safer for the fabric than scantily diluted bleach. (03/19/2009)
By Dan
Dyeing won't restore a solid color. There will be dark patches where the original color was not bleached, and lighter shades on the bleached areas, if there is enough fiber for the dye to hold. I just saw jeans like that in Lucky magazine, special designer brand, almost $1000!
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