Sunday 1 July 2012

bleached out

I've had this top for years, but for the last 18 months I've only been wearing it around the house or beneath other tops because I spilled some bleach on the front of it while cleaning the bathroom.

When I ruined it I decided I'd try to bleach a design onto it to cover the damage, but it took me a long time to get round to doing it!

On Thursday I finally bit the bullet and had a go:


I put a plastic bag inside the top in order to protect the back and then used a paintbrush to apply the bleach, except for the leaves which I did with a sponge for a lighter effect.
I didn't use proper fabric bleach, I used Grot Buster because I wanted to match the shade of the original stain! I'm sure that it was pretty bad for the fabric, so I'm going to hand wash the top in order to keep it alive as long as possible!

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I might add more to the design to cover some spots of bleach I got on the right side of the top when I was working on it. Perhaps a crescent moon?

What do you do when you ruin clothing you like? Do you try to rescue it in some way?

9 comments:

  1. You did a perfect job on the shirt. So clever of you to take advantage of the little accident! I don't like to throw away clothes either unless I can't rescue them.

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  2. Cool! It turned out quite nicely, and I like the idea of adding a crescent moon.

    Thanks to my sewing skills, I can usually repair split seams, fallen hems, and tears. The usually garment I usually throw out is jeans, because those will end up ripped beyond repair. Even then, they end up in the compost heap, so it isn't a total loss.

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  3. I always keep my ripped up jeans because they are so comfy hehe, I wear them for painting. Composting stuff that is beyond repair is a really good idea though.

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  4. This is incredibly brilliant! And you did a fantastic job, it turned out so nice.

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  5. Thank you! I'm glad you like it =]

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  6. I hate throwing things away so I will do just about anything to salvage damaged clothing, but I must say, I have never seen a repair this creative before. It came out great. I LOVE the idea of adding a crescent moon!

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  7. I love bleached designs on black clothing - yours turned out lovely! I have even tried tie-dyeing with bleach on black, and that turns out very nice, too. I'm usually too lazy to salvage my own clothing that I've ruined with bleach or dye - they just become my "crafting clothes" until they reach the point where they're embarrassing to wear, and then they become paint rags. :o)

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  8. Wow really love it =)
    Just a few days ago I got bleach on my black skirt while bleaching my friends hair =( I was thinking of adding a patch but now I think I might try this. Well if there is a way to save the clothes then I definitely will, specially if I really like the clothing.

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