fading jeans

December 16, 2005 6:35 AM

How do I fade the colour only on an area of a pair of jeans?

I removed an embroidery pattern from a pair of denim jeans, but now that spot that was covered by the stitching is darker than the rest of the fabric, so the shape of the pattern still stands out.

How do I fix this? Any special products that I can apply only in that area?

Preferably something cheap, as the jeans themselves were less than the price of a CD (bought them at a street market) so I'm not going to go nuts about it, but I like the fit so I'd really like to be able to wear them without that ugly "stain" where the pattern was.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

(I searched for methods of fading jeans but only found some instructions on how to fade an entire pair of jeans in the washing machine, or using tie-dye methods for creating patterns, which is not what I'm looking for...)

posted by funambulist to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (10 answers total)

hmmm, i was going to suggest sun-fading, but that might be tough with only one small area. If you could cover the areas you don't want to fade and then hang them in the sun (maybe spray with water to help things) you might be able to accomplish this. I used to do this with tie dyes I didn't want to look too new :)
posted by terrapin at 6:39 AM on December 16, 2005

Dab the area you want to lighten with lemon juice and put the jeans out in the sun. If it's incredibly detailed, you could use a cotton swab or something to apply the lemon juice.
posted by peppermint22 at 6:47 AM on December 16, 2005

Or a cotton swap and hydrogen peroxide.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 6:58 AM on December 16, 2005

any bleach will work, experiment with the amount and applying method before you put it on the jeans
posted by suni at 7:05 AM on December 16, 2005

Dilute hydrogen peroxide is a bit easier to control (milder, deactivates more quickly) than regular chlorine laundry bleach, so you might experiment with that first, escalating to the Javex if necessary.
posted by bonehead at 7:09 AM on December 16, 2005

Sandpaper.
posted by mendel at 8:27 AM on December 16, 2005

Bleach pen?
posted by MsMolly at 9:12 AM on December 16, 2005

Caveat: I know nothing about this. But if I were to try such a thing I'd definitely look for a spot where I could do a test patch. Maybe there's some exterior-shade denim inside the hem?
posted by Songdog at 9:17 AM on December 16, 2005

There are bleaches/dye removers just for this purpose. I'd start with a diluted solution, and apply it with a brush or q-tip.

Or, you can try sanding, a pumice stone might give you the most control over a small area.
posted by padraigin at 9:45 AM on December 16, 2005

Response by poster: Wow, lots of ideas, thanks... I'd never even thought of lemon juice or peroxide, that's brilliant.

I just tried with the pumice stone, it does seem to work... I can see the spot is losing some colour, not enough so far but some, but it's also losing tiny fluffy bits of denim so I'll have to go very slow, I don't want to risk thinning the fabric.

I'll see if a combination of that plus lemon/peroxide works better, otherwise I'll move on to bleach (that pen looks very handy!)

Songdog: that is a very good idea, hadn't thought of it. There's not much of a hem but it is darker so I'll try there when I apply the stuff.

I'll report back in a couple of days, after experimenting. :)
posted by funambulist at 12:25 PM on December 16, 2005