I have been experimenting recently with repurposing clothing that is old, faded, stained, or just doesn’t fit anymore. I decided that I would try my hand at re-dying some clothing. Without wanting to invest too much time or money and not really caring about the results (these clothing items were going to be donated/tossed anyway), I decided to go with Rit Dye that can be picked up at any grocery store. While there, I discovered Rit Color Remover, which is used when dyeing fabric a lighter or different color. I decided to give it a try.
I picked out my clothing items and followed the directions on the package and used the instructions here for using a HE (high efficiency) front loading washing machine. I used 2 boxes of the Color Remover for my small load of laundry and I set my washer on Hot/Cold. I also used the longest wash cycle available. Here is a before picture of my clothing (I promise that as I get better at blogging, my photos will also get better):
Before
The results were not as drastic as I had hoped. The three pink items on the left of the “before” picture were lightened quite a bit, enough that I could easily change the color when re-dyeing. The 4 items with patterns (on the left) were only lightened slightly (almost not enough to even be mentioned). Here is the after picture:
After
My major success with this experiment was an unexpected one. The tank top at the bottom of both pictures is one of my favorites. I thought I was going to have to trash it as it had a very large oily stain on it. The Rit Color Remover did not remove the color but it did remove the stain! Hooray! Now, just because it didn’t remove the color on my printed fabric does not mean that it will not remove yours. Only try it on fabric that you are ok with whatever result you get.
I will post my dyeing results on another day.
1 plus 1 equals 9 