Project Pants Restoration

I have a pair of pants that are similar to jeans but they aren't denim. They are a cotton blend and fit skinny at the ankle and the color is similar to a dark denim blue. They are soft and wonderful and a go-to staple in my wardrobe. One day I was wearing them while cleaning the floors in my old apartment and when I stood up and looked at my knees I realized I had ruined them! I had been using a cleaner with bleach and the blue knees on my pants turned that awful pink color from being exposed to bleach. Needless to say, I was distraught.

Adorable blue, soft, skinny...sigh

Bleach stain on the left knee

Bleach stain on the right knee

I bought some Rit in 'Denim Blue' and decided to give it a shot. I had never used Rit before so I wasn't sure how strong it would be, if it would work, etc. The directions on the liquid bottle say to use one entire bottle for every 2 lbs. of dry clothing. These pants do not weigh 2 lbs. so I started off with half of the bottle. The directions also call for one cup of salt for every bottle used so I measured out half of a cup.

1/2 c. Salt and the bottle of Rit

Next, I filled the washing machine with water and added the salt and dye. I mixed it a little bit because it says to 'agitate' the mixture.

Blue washing machine

When the water was ready I added in the damp unfolded pants. I ran water over them in the slop sink to get them a little wet.

Damp pants

I was so excited to see the pants all one color again but when I pulled them out of the washer the pink stains were still there, just a purple stain instead. So, against the suggested direction, I applied the dye directly to the stain and let it sit for 15 minutes and then washed them. Again, the stains were still purple. So I decided to leave the dye on the stains over night. I woke up, saw that they were matching the color of the rest of the pants and washed them. When I pulled them out of the washing machine this time the stains were still purple!

Better but still not right

Still so noticeable

It seems like the better idea would have been to only dye the bleached part instead of the whole garment. Dying the entire thing obviously would result in different colors because the bleached area would pick up the color in a different way than the other parts. So back to the drawing board. I decided to submerge the bleach-stained knees into a sink of the remaining dye with a little bit of water. This time I let it soak for 24 hours. 

Soaking in a tub of dye

After about 24 hours the dye had pretty much all been soaked up and the stains looked pretty well covered so I put them in the washer. They came out looking like as if they were covered but I couldn't be sure. I put them in the dryer and waited to see if I was successful. When they were all dry the stains were pretty much invisible! You can still kind of see a dark purple color on one knee if you look very closely but from a distance they seem to be all one color!

Right knee spot removed!

Left knee looks a little discolored but I'll take it!

Good as new!

Love,