I Wish I Had a Photo.
I am not crafty. I admit this to anyone who will listen.
So when I realized that my relatively new, cream-colored hoodie was comfortable but stained, I was at a loss. I’d bought a neutral color because it would go with everything – but it only “went with” the food I spilled on it – starting with red lentils and ending with grape juice.
That grape-juice dot on the sleeve was my sign: I could dye this shirt with grape juice. I’d just bought a bucketload of grape juice at Costco and then discovered I hate grape juice. So: two problems solved.
I researched and googled until I could google no more. Finally, I jumped up and threw my shirt into a bucket and drowned it in grape juice.
As suggested by many crafty bloggers, I let it sit for 12-24 hours. In fact, I let it sit for 36 hours, just to be sure. Frequently I pushed it around, stirred it, turned it over. It was definitely purple!
My crafty friend suggested that I find out how to set the dye. So, again thanks to googling, I transferred the shirt into vinegar-enhanced water and let it soak like a giant purple Easter egg.
It was gorgeous. I wish I had a photo of that brilliant purple color! I’d created a shirt I would be excited to wear.
But it was really, really wet.
That’s where I got stuck. After it had soaked and set, the crafty internet people disagreed. Should it be washed in cold and hung to dry? Or should it be washed in hot and dried in the dryer? No one seemed to know – or rather, everyone seemed to know, and they all contradicted each other.
My logic determined that if cold water with vinegar had already set the dye, then washing it with hot water – which sets a blood stain – was a good idea. So that’s what I did.
I wrung out the shirt to eliminate excess water, then I tossed it into the washer, set it on hot, and pushed “start.” Soon it was officially washed; I pulled it out to admire it.
Hm.
That gorgeous purple had turned into lavender. It was a nice lavender, but it wasn’t that gorgeous bright purple anymore. Still – it was nice. It was better than cream-colored and stained.
The internet gods said that I needed to wash it three times, so I did. After the second washing, I examined it again. This time, it was gray. Not puke-gray, but a solid, sporty gray.
After the third wash, it was a very light, definitely-not-purple gray. In fact, after three washes, it was most certainly puke-gray, the unmistakable color of an inmate’s jumper.
I tossed the shirt into the dryer. When it emerged with its vinegar-set, heat-set professional dye by Kirsten, there wasn’t one smidgeon of purple.
And while I couldn’t find evidence of red lentils or the purple spot of grape juice on the sleeve, the shirt now has teeny little pinprick-sized blue dots, making it look like I bought a gray shirt and stained it at least a dozen times with my leaky blue pen.
I don’t know what to think of this “new” shirt. I’m a little afraid that it’s somehow still going to bleed purple. Or maybe it will bleed gray.
I think I will do what I do with most of my craft projects. I will throw it into the garbage. Then I will buy a brand new, bright purple hoodie – created by someone else.