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Bleaching a Black Dress?

I want to bleach my black dress white. But it is satin and lace. Do you think bleach would work on those materials. How do I even begin with how to bleach it, in the washer. in the tub (someone said) and what kind of bleach? I don't even mind if the dress went grey. Just not sure of where to begin. Any help would be much appreciated.

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Mercedes from SF, CA

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By Grandma Margie (Guest Post)
October 26, 20060 found this helpful

I've experimented over the years, doing things like this and my experience is screaming "Don't even try this"!!!!! You are NOT going to get the end result you want..........PLUS you're going to totally ruin (what sounds to me is) a perfectly good dress. This is just my opinion, but I can tell you that doing something like that is NEVER as easy as you assume it will be and the end result will be a total trainwreck!

 

Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 156 Feedbacks
October 26, 20060 found this helpful

I agree with Grandma Margie and if you try to bleach the dress you will not be happy with the results. It will probably turn out to be a "dirty gray" color when you are finished, or worse, come out looking like a bad tie-dye attempt.

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If you still are determined to try this, I would call a dry-cleaner and ask them if they have experience in this, or try calling a bridal shop and see if they know of anyone that they could recommend to you.

 
April 14, 20180 found this helpful

Not sure about material ... but black goes brown with bleach. If you go to your local fabric store, those girls will probably know what can & cannot be bleached. And I always bleach stuff in the washing machine. Even if you don't want it to oscillate much, it is the best place to mix bleach & water thoroughly for even bleaching. I'm here looking for what colour I will get if I bleach my hunter green t-shirt. Trying for a look that is well-worn.

 
October 26, 20060 found this helpful

I'm not really for sure, but if it were mine I'd leave
leave the dress as it is.
You might be disapointed in your end result. It seems that (BLEACHING SATIN) would distroy THE SATIN Fabric. I could eat holes in it.

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Hope this helps, Sherry.

 
 
By txcatlover (Guest Post)
October 26, 20060 found this helpful

I honestly don't think it's possible to get good results with such an extreme color change. Just can't go from black to white.

 
By (Guest Post)
October 26, 20060 found this helpful

Sorry - you can't do anything with a black dress - unless you want to apply bleach in a tie dye fashion and make a pattern - but doesn't sound like it will go with a satin/lace dress

 
By utahyogini (Guest Post)
October 26, 20060 found this helpful

I have to agree with the other posts.

The type of fabric matters when doing a home dye.

Cotton is usally best. Synthenic fabrics are tricker if not impossible to dye.

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Hope this helps.

 
By GrammySheila (Guest Post)
October 26, 20060 found this helpful

I dyed a cream colored satin, lace & pearls dress a beautiful burgandy for my sister's wedding and had no problems with holes or anything. The dress was worn by my Granddaughter as the flower girl in my wedding 6 years ago. My sister's wedding was a year after mine. The only thing that didn't actually dye well was the lace part...it was just a bit lighter than the rest of the dress. It was beautiful, though. I used Rit dye on it and what I did was put the dye in the kitchen (stainless steel) sink full of water. I used regular bleach to clean up the sink afterwards.

If I remember correctly, my daughter went from black satin to white one time using Rit color remover on a satin dress...it didn't go white, but rather a really pretty silvery gray.

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I say, if you don't like the dress (for whatever reason) and don't care what other color it will go, why not try it?

 
October 7, 20170 found this helpful

If the fiber content is 100 percent cotton or linen or wool u can change black to most any color but white.

 
By Claudia-MD (Guest Post)
October 30, 20060 found this helpful

I agree that this would likely be a disaster. Even Rit Dye remover would not get this black dress to any attractive shade and would probably ruin the fabric. I wouldn't waste the time, money or aggrevation on trying this.

 
July 14, 20070 found this helpful

If you want to dye it because it's faded then just redye with black RIT. If you want a white one take it to a seamstress and ask for a duplicate white dress.

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Try to bleach it and it's toast.

 
July 30, 20090 found this helpful

Agree with all the other comments don't bleach a black dress. That's a nightmare waiting to happen. Unless you want to get creative and do a tie dye look but that also sounds like a nightmare.

 
August 11, 20090 found this helpful

Ya, probably not a good idea. You could always buy a new one.
http://www.herblackdress.com

 
July 11, 20130 found this helpful

I may be late getting to the party, here, but- I've got 3 dresses bleaching in stages as we speak. I've had black t shirts go to a pleasant cream in the past but it depends on the fab, for sure- one of the dresses I'm working on now is black, polyester/rayon, its down to a dense dark grey (think wool slacks) and beautiful but I'm working to get it lighter. That's why I came here. If you fill the tub and add your bleach and be certain to fully submerge and wash about your material, nothing will turn up a 'tie-dyed disaster'. Be brave. Use your head. Do what you do carefully. Good luck.

 
July 7, 20180 found this helpful

From the other post I've read, places I've gone, and people I've called so far reading what you posted is the closest to help that I can find. That being said, I have a dark purple polyester evening gown it is beautiful however I desperately need it to be white! Well, at least as close to White as I could get maybe even a light purple could work. I plan to use the dress for my wedding if all goes well. As you can probably gather I am on a strict budget as we have three small children. Since I love this dress I decided to try this first if it does not work then I will go from there any help at all would be greatly appreciated or if you know how I could get a dress at a super super low price that would help as well I've never put together a wedding before especially not my own and I can tell you I don't know where to begin but I do know that above all I just want my dress to be pretty...thanks for your time..

 
July 29, 20130 found this helpful

I have a lace dress. It's black and I would like to dye it red. How do I do it?

 
Anonymous
February 19, 20160 found this helpful

bleach can have strange effects on black mostly turning it a dark orange or yellow but if you want to take the risk get a bucket fill it 2 parts water 1 part bleach let the dress soak for about and hour to an hour and 30 min once its done that take it out and soak it in vinegar for a few min to stop the bleaching process then dry it hopefully your dress will be black if not at last your ready for Halloween!?

 
October 6, 20160 found this helpful

Please do not use vinegar. It can cause toxic gas

 
May 27, 20180 found this helpful

Lol, you might want to wash it somewhere in between the vinegar bath and the drying......

 
April 30, 20210 found this helpful

You don't seem very confident. I have a black lace dress too. A-line and its gorgeous! Problem? It looks fit for a funeral and I need it for graduation.

 

Silver Post Medal for All Time! 267 Posts
May 1, 20210 found this helpful

If you don't want to wear black to your graduation, I would save your dress for another purpose. You will never be able to bleach out all the black and the seams will still show dark, even if the body of the dress lightens. If the dress is gorgeous and suits you, it would be a shame to ruin it.

 
June 24, 20160 found this helpful

I don't really think bleaching anything that is lace will bleach I think it only rips not sure but I'm pretty sure for you , you won't get the results you are expecting to get

 
July 30, 20160 found this helpful

Can I bleach my black polyester slacks to grey?

 
May 27, 20180 found this helpful

I came here (12 years after the original post,lol, kinda funny. 4sho record 4 me) hoping to find a different answer than the one I knew which was that my purple hat was going to turn pink If I bleached. Reading the comments I was a little dismayed by all the negativity and doubters. Not only should she have tried it, she would have got the results she wanted. Though true it would have weakened the fabric. WHether to the point of eating holes in it, I don't know about satin. Polys and cottons are fine though, but many polys won't give up their color at all. I've soaked a work shirt over night in pure bleach, color did not budge.... But then I realized people were thinking about bleach as whitener and focused on her primary goal of a white dress. I say she would be successful because she said she would accept a grey dress..... That's why I posted, so here;)....

Bleach does not mean white. Bleach means a breakdown of the pigments in the dyes. All colors other than red, blue, yellow come from red, blue and yellow. With shading from black and white and intensity from absorbing or reflecting light. Bleaching a piece of clothing is a great project! You have to treat the bleach just like dye. There are many tye dye tutorials and videos on the net, any would suffice. It is even easier than working with dyes though, its way way cheaper and you can revive a piece you already have instead of buy a new white piece. The only thing is, as I said earlier was my reason to be here, is what color you are going to get, its a mystery but I have found, a great one everytime. I did a v-neck t-shirt that was a dark khaki-army green kind of thing. I had two, I was bored of them after years so I said what the hey. I tied a few traditional sunburst pattern and soaked it in half bleach about ten minutes. Time didn't reaally matter, I watched it and saw the color changing to just one other distinct color and all the way to white and decided to pull it while there was still some original color left. The result was simply amazing! The other color was, you guessed it, pink. Wouldn't be my first instinct for a match but dark army khaki and pink go awesome together. Along with the white all 3 colors ripple through the sunbursts. Simply beautiful, dumb luck:) I recommend people experiment with it at least once. And forget all those party poopers who are too wound up to enjoy life! I mean being scared of how the world will receive you and your quest is one thing but being either too anal or scared of bleaching a dress is a sad comment on the state of culture. Peace All

 
October 28, 20210 found this helpful

How would I go about dying a black chiffon satin lace dress to make it gray or white

 

Silver Post Medal for All Time! 267 Posts
October 28, 20210 found this helpful

This post is very old, published in 2006. It's unlikely that anyone will see your question to respond. It would be best to send it in as a new question to our current members.

www2.thriftyfun.com/.../index.lasso?share=11

 

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