How to fade/lighten garments fast? Will bleach work?

By Squishy blob. 27/01/10, 07:03 pm

I recently bought a second-hand black cardigan in a hurry for my Yuki Nagato cosplay. However, now my ... erm... inner cosplayer accuracy ~~nazi~~ has come out to remind that her cardigan is actually a dark shade of grey.

So basically, I was wondering if there was anyway to lighten it, and although I've been leaving it in the sun for a week or so, I'd like it to fade a little faster. I heard washing repeatedly in hot water will shrink it, and some people on style forums have suggested household bleach, greatly diluted. Will that work? How much would I have to use? Is there any other way?

Just any help would be appreciated.

By Highlander. 28/01/10, 05:01 pm

I would assume that you would have to be very careful with bleach. I also assume that tea dying will not work enough on Black. Don't really know.

Last resort may be to try to bleach it with strong bleach, hopefully without damaging it. Then you can dye it back up to the required shade.

What fiber is it? Wool should dye O.K. Some artificial fibers are worse. There is a very good dyeing thread on here somewhere.

By **jpwise**. 28/01/10, 05:09 pm

You'll need to find out what fabric it is. If it's synthetic I'm pretty sure bleach won't do much either.

I've got a white t-shirt with black thread in it, that i've put bleach in the wash for getting out annoying stains etc, and the white bleaches fine, but so far the bleach hasn't affected the thread at all, so i'm pretty sure the threads a synthetic.
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By **JVCA**. 28/01/10, 05:12 pm

Bleach will blotch very easily. D:

Try using Dygon - it's produced by Dylon, and it's a dye stripper, so it should hopefully remove at least some of the dye. It's designed to remove dye from garments that you then want to redye, so it's good at reducing the colour. I've used it before when I accidentally screwed up the sleeves on my Summoner Yuna costume and it was great - didn't blotch or streak at all. nodnod

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By Squishy blob. 28/01/10, 05:41 pm

My mum said we had some dye stripper but we can't find it. =(

However, I did find some household bleach that said it was suitable for "whitening whites" so poured some into a machine and let it fill up and mix before putting in an old piece of black fabric that was 90% cotton (my cardigan is 95%).

The result was a grey piece of fabric, and the colour was only uneven along one crease. I'll try again this evening with less bleach. Thanks guys!

EDIT: Success? Cardigan lightened evenly, but not enough... I guess I'll just use more bleach next time.