Or is it Dyeing?

I've got some perfectly fine black denim pants that are losing their dye and starting to look a little... patchy. Would it work to buy that Rit dye and redye them, or will that stuff just wash out and ruin all my other clothes?

Anyone know?

Or is it Dyeing?

I've got some perfectly fine black denim pants that are losing their dye and starting to look a little... patchy. Would it work to buy that Rit dye and redye them, or will that stuff just wash out and ruin all my other clothes?

Anyone know?

I've re-dyed tons of black clothes. My approach is the "better safe than sorry"-approach. What you do is:

1. make sure laundry basket is empty, cause your machine is gonna be busy for a while
2. dye jeans as per instructions on box (for extra bonus, toss in all those perfectly good, but a bit greying, socks you have. I know you have'em!)
3. dry jeans (no tumble dryer, the dye isnt set and you dont want that **** all over your tumble dryer)
3b. while jeans dry, run machine - with soap but no softener, 2-3 times to get rid of the exess dye
4. run the machine with jeans in once or twice, cold wash, no soap, no softener. Some say adding salt to the first wash of newly dyed clothes help set the colour. I never tried this, so I can't verify.
5. run machine once more with just soap, no jeans, no softener to get the final bits of colour out of it's system.

Or:
1. Hand-dye jeans
2. dry jeans
3. hand wash jeans twice in cold water
4. machine wash jeans once
5. run machine once empty with soap

Excellent! Thanks, I knew it wouldn't be easy no matter what.

If you put something white in with that dye, would it come out black, or grey? I have a pair of white pants I never wear, I'd probably wear them if they were another color.

If you put something white in with that dye, would it come out black, or grey?

If you toss it in with other stuff like you described - grey. White to black demands that ALL the dye is for the white garment and nothing else, and even then it's a gamble. I'd think twice about it if I were you - maybe they'd be cool as another colour instead? Black is really difficult to get right from white (wuwu I made a rhyme!)

Ok, I'm gonna try to redye these suckers. They're so comfortable and fit me perfectly. I don't want to throw them out!

Salt in the first wash DOES work. I highly recommend it. Let the machine make it's first fill, add salt and let it agitate a little then stop the washer and let it sit soaking for at least 30 minutes. Then start the washer up and let it finish the full cycle.

How much salt, arienne?

depends on the load size, but I'd say go for maybe three or so tablespoons in a small load.

I always heard that vinegar was the stuff to use to set the dye. If that's the case, then adding salt probably creates a buffer (sodium acetate) helping to keep the free acetic acid in the right amounts for setting the dye.

/chemistry geek off

Well, I just knew I could count on my friends at TDG to tell me all about dying. Probably because they mastered the art in EQ.

Jinjre died plenty of times in EQ...that's because she spent a lot of time with Iagoe. She didn't die nearly as much when Iagoe wasn't around ;)

Gives new meaning to the phrase, "dying to be with him"

Since we are on chemistry....

I have a question.

I wore my Docs without socks for a couple of days.

Now they smell like something died and climbed into a cat litter box. Or climbed into a litter box and died, take your pick.

I inititially used H2O2 to keel whatever was in there. It worked at first, but now it's worse.

The active ingredient of Dr. Scholls odor eater foot power is sodium bicarb(after corn starch which is not really what I wanted).

One, will the sodium bicarbonate destroy the leather?
Two, is there something that I can use to kill all the microbes in the boots, to stop it from coming back. I am thinking an autoclave will turn them into cinders?

Prolonged use of bicarb may damage the leather over time, but will do more damage to your feet than to the leather, as it makes the environment basic. Base + skin = soap (bases react with the long chain fats in our cells to form soap in a process called saponification).

Best stuff in the world to kill that sort of thing is the mico-type foot sprays for athletes foot. I suggest you take your boots outside, and spray the spray down the inside until you see it poofing back out of the boots. Then, for the next few times you wear the boots, put the spray directly on your socks after you've put your socks on.

I had to live with my foot in an ortho boot for a couple of months after surgery, that was the only way to keep the smell to a minimum. The smell is caused by an overabundance of the natural fauna we have growing on our feet, the spray kills that off.

The smell is caused by an overabundance of the natural fauna we have growing on our feet, the spray kills that off.Fyyr and Jinjre = hobbit druids. /nod

Jinjre was actually a wood elf TYVM. No hobbitses for me.

So was Fyyr.

But Jinjre was one of the pretty wood elves ;)

But Jinjre was one of the pretty wood elves ;)Ahh. Jinjre retired before they added the *new* character models. Those models sure downgraded the beauty of EQ. :/

Gah! The new models made wood elves look freakish. They did make my ogress look a lot nicer, but Jinjre looked like a topless dancer gone to seed.

The dye package says 1 cup of salt.

Death isn't to be feared. Death simply is.

Oh wait, you weren't asking about that.

I can't help you there unless its an easter egg you want to dye.

So wait, one cup of salt will keep me from dying?

No no, one cup of salt makes you die better, so you don't come back to life accidentally.

One cup of salt helps the dead folks stay down. The dead folk stay down. The dead folk stay down...

Heh! The salt and dying things reminds me of a time when my character in DnD died and messed up her role to get ressurrected. So they stuffed her in a barrel of salt to pickle her and carted her around until we found someone that could do it. Unfortunately along the way we encountered a huge, giant slug and they threw poor Electra (salt and all) into his mouth. She got majorly slimed.

Eventually we made a deal with major Demon to bring her back. It caused us a little trouble down the road, but we got our main mage back.

Eventually we made a deal with major Demon to bring her back. Well... that explains a LOT. ;)

Hush, or I'll turn you into a newt.

Actually, Electra's forte is taking control of people's minds and turning them into minions. *cackle*

Actually, Electra's forte is taking control of people's minds and turning them into minions. *cackle**points at Aidon*

Try that one :D

Ooooh! That would be fun. What could we do with him? Set him to ironing clothes, cooking dinner, mopping the floors all with a nice meek "Yes, dear".

naahhhh Just turn him into the "not so bitter druid" :D

Bah, the Bitterness was a potent force for the Betterment of Druidkind.

"Was" being the operative word. Bygones! Pam, minionize and unbitter him, you know you wanna! :)

You will never turn me to the Dark Side...

Deals made with demons, I find, are generally pretty nast for all involved except the demon even if the short term reward seems pretty good.

Speaking about games. I've not knowingly spoken to nor made any deals with any demons.

We could change him from Bitter to Bitter-sweet? Or Semi-sweet?

Sweet and sour? Aidon, chinese-style? Geysha outfit?

Well sure, its not easy making deals with demons. Some people frown on it. Its kind of like borrowing money from the Mafia. We've just run into him again... some sort of prophecy thing. Ho Hum. Oh here we go with the prophecy thing. Didn't we just deal with one of those? How many prophecies are out there? This world could do with a lot fewer prophecies. And how come they're always right? Didn't they have any Jean Dixon's?

Well, finally did it! The pants are extremely black now. I used 2 packages. I stuck them back in the washer and washed them in hot today and they turned the water black (still!). Then I read I'm supposed to wash them in cold. Oops. So rewashed them (4th time I think) in cold. Hopefully the black doesn't stick to my legs when I wear them.

They look great though! Very, very black. So black that solar systems are collapsing into the pockets! Woo hoo! Thanks for the guidance.

So rewashed them (4th time I think) in cold. Hopefully the black doesn't stick to my legs when I wear them.Could be a bonus! Get the same look of snug black denim with the freedom to move! :D

After all these years... I finally had a laundry revelation... you're supposed to wash dark colors in cold aren't you? I think I'd been using hot all this time. DOH!

Not a revelation... just a carry over from the "stone washed denim" generation. :) I wash pretty much everything but bedding in cold water anyway.

My reasoning was that you could clump all your darks together and wash them in hot because if a little dye went running around, no one would care. But I didn't associate my fading clothes with hot water. Doh!