Feb 08 2009
Right Dress, Wrong Color Part 1
I bought this amazing vintage dress a couple of weeks ago, fit is amazing, but the color is terrible on me. It is a soft peachy beige, which is beautiful, save the fact that it is almost the same tone as my skin. I was debating various options, including embroidery, painting, and dying it darker, but I love the lightness of the dress, so I decided to try to bleach it. It seems to be a rayon or polyester blend, most likely synthetic however, so bleaching may or may not work. All I had on hand right now was Comet powder bleach, and I am soaking the dress in a bucket of bleach/water blend overnight. We will see how it turns out!
If you want to bleach your own clothes, there are a few steps to take first. Mainly, I would recommend doing a test piece first. I did a little test inside the pocket, but I didn’t really wait long enough. Different fabrics will take to bleach and to color differently, for example, synthetics are usually slower or entirely unlikely to take to color, and bleach may or may not work, cottons work well with anything, silks and wools are dyed when they are still just fibre and bleach can dehydrate them, and a blend is often a mystery until you try.
Remove all plastic (buttons) and metal (fastenings) that is possible before bleaching- some buttons will melt and metal can cause a reaction if you are using a high concentration not intended for fabrics. Remember that it might go wrong, so try to have a dark dye in mind if it doesn’t work.
Sometimes the Rit Dye Remover will work. If you are concerned that it may damage the fibres, is there some way you could change the neckline to put a different color up there? Since it is the color nearest your face that has to be flattering, even a colourful scarf to fill in the neckling might help. Good luck.