Monday, June 28, 2010

Dingy Whites? Sunshine Orange!

I had some seriously dingy white shirts.  Just keeping it real.  Actually, whites are the bane of my existence.  I've tried everything to keep my whites white.  You name it, I've tried it, with little measurable success.  I think we need a water softener, but, until then, we'll just have to deal with dingy whites.  I hate them.  I feel terrible that we stop wearing clothing that, with the exception of the color, is in really good condition.  But that is what happens because this is my real life.  My whites don't stay very white and become dingy.   The dingy clothes stay in the closet in favor of brighter, cleaner-looking clothing.

$1.62 later, I had this beautiful box of RIT dye.  Sunshine Orange, to be exact.

A quick jaunt to the utility sink and I had those dingy whites in a lovely orange bath.  I even threw in a Trader Joe's bag for good measure.  Impulsive, aren't I?  (I'm boycotting TJ's because they won't come to my city and they should.  Even worse?  They teased us by shopping properties and then pulling out.)  Anyway, back to my story.

Half an hour later, I put the formerly dingy clothes into the washer for a rinse/spin cycle and ran out to add them to the clothesline.

Look at these!  Four different fabrics (3 of which were 100% cotton), netted four different results.  Buttercup's cami seems more golden, doesn't it?  (It is not actually splotchy...the fabric was dryer in some places than others!)

Oh, the TJ's bag?  I love the way the dye highlighted the crinkles in the linen.  Now I'm going to line it and sew some abstract patch over the logo and start using it again.

4 comments:

DarcyLee said...

Thanks for the idea about dingy whites! Unfortunately, I do have a few. I first used RIT just a few months ago on some light blue sheets that somehow got bleach spots on them. I used the royal blue color to dye them with and they came out beautifully. Love that stuff.

Clark said...

Way to go! Those look awesome! I think it would be an appropriate protest to modify the Trader Joe's bag. Screw them! (Boy I wish they would open a store by the way!)

Andrea @ TheTrainToCrazy.com said...

I love the way that TJ's bag looks! Great color.

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