Need some advice on bleaching fabric
 

I saw a cute project where a blogger took fabric and bleached it just enough to make it a paler version of the original, then sewed half-square triangles from the pairs. It turned out really cool.

So my question – any advice on bleaching fabric to lighten it? I read somewhere 1 part bleach to 10 parts water; elsewhere 1 part bleach to 5 parts water. Also, soak for 10-15 seconds? And rinse with vinegar to set?

Does this sound about right to anyone who has bleached fabric before? Thanks!

I saw that blog also. Here is a link to her concentrations and time frames. http://themodernquiltguild.wordpress...s-with-bleach/

There is a product by rit dye that removes color from fabric too. It would depend on how long you left it in the solution how light it would get. Might be a better way of doing it. I don't think clorine would be so good for the fabric. I may be wrong, but, I am just letting you know.

I think you would rinse generously in water. Vinegar would not be necessary.

Bleach will not necessarily make the fabric a lighter shade of the same color. It may result in an entirely different color or it may have no effect at all. It all depends on what specific dye was used to color the fabric initially. For example, some dark blues bleach to red, some reds to white, some blacks to brown.

The vinegar (hydrogen peroxide or anti-chlor are better options) is a stop-bath and is absolutely necessary. It does not 'set' the color change, but is used to stop the bleaching action so the fabric is not totally destroyed (meaning eaten) by the bleach. Also, be sure to wash all discharged fabric in your washing machine, with detergent, when your session is done. Read up on discharge dyeing for more details.

To answer your specific questions, for what you're looking to do, I'd use a 1:10 ratio of bleach to water (1 cup bleach to 2½ quarts water) and just soak the fabric until it's faded to your liking. Each dye will react differently so there's no set time to go by. I haven't done an overall lightening of printed fabric, but I frequently create patterns on solids with bleach using various marking methods. It's great fun. Enjoy it! :)

I've used bleach successfully to bleach small areas ... I used a small paint brush. I needed to show depth to something (to make it appear round) so I bleached a small area of one side to show light, and applied black fabric ink to the other side to show dark - left the middle as it was. It turned out fantastic!

Again .. I used a diluted bleach (I think about 7 parts water to 1 part bleach) and painted it on with a small brush (the area I wanted bleached was perhaps 1/2" wide by the length of the fabric). My fabric was a batik in brown with a black print and it bleached to a lighter brown.

I wet the fabric first then I painted a small area at a time - perhaps 4" length X 1/2" wide. I let it stand on the fabric for as long as it took for me to visibly see a change, then I immediately ran it under cold water for a long time to thoroughly rinse all the bleach. If I needed it lighter, I repeated the method. When I was done with the whole piece I washed it with detergent in the sink and of course rinsed it again.

By wetting the fabric first I got a nice even bleed. Had I not pre-wet the fabric I would have had bleach "blotches".

Experiment!! Practice with the same fabric and try it both wet and dry to see which way works best for you.

This is exactly what I was looking for! Interesting that some fabrics change in a good way and some do not. I think I'd still like to try this, but I may have to rethink what fabrics I experiment with. Thanks!

Sounds like it would not hurt to try & experiment on some scarp fabric. :)

I just saw a similar process on the crazymomquilts.blogspot.com - it was very interesting to see the fabrics used and how much they changed through the process.

The key step that is missing from the Modern Quilt Guild blog posting is the stop-bath (anti-chlor or hydrogen peroxide mixed with water). If you skip that critical step, your fabric will rot through over time. Simply washing the fabric with water will not stop the corrosive action of the bleach, it has to be stopped chemically.

Some much more experienced references on this subject than the ones previously cited are:
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/dis...hemicals.shtml
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/...leach/page/all
http://www.emich.edu/textiles/PDFs/bleach.pdf
http://www.dharmatrading.com/techniq...scharging.html