fixing pink-ified jeans

July 21, 2005 12:17 PM

Damn it all to hell, I've gone and "pinked" both pairs of jeans I own by washing them with something red in the same load. Clearly, my innate stupidity is incurable, but is there hope for my pants? I think I'd rather walk into work in my boxers than swish in on twin ringlets of pink fringe.

What was I thinking? That they're dark, dark blue and could tolerate the red. That much was true, but I'd overlooked just how much of the fabric has frayed or worn a little bit, exposing the pure-white threads underneath the blue. It's those that are now brilliant pink. The actual blue parts of the denim are okay, but the pink highlights I wouldn't even wear at Burning Man.

posted by scarabic to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (11 answers total)

A light wash with green, or bluish green dye will turn the pink to grey, if you guess the right amount. Complementary color.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:30 PM on July 21, 2005

You could skip the guess-work and just go for full on blue dye, that would lose much of the formerly white parts, but at least you'd have no more pink.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:39 PM on July 21, 2005

I've done that to jeans before and I find the best thing to do is simply wash them again, by themselves. I still use soap but not as much as for a full load. Works for me so I hope it will work for you! Good luck!
posted by LunaticFringe at 12:43 PM on July 21, 2005

blue + pink is gonna come out lavender, though, pollomacho.
posted by mdn at 12:43 PM on July 21, 2005

Best answer: Two options:

(1) Wash the jeans with good old bleach. (If you don't mind a little fading along with the dye removal.)

(2) RIT Dye Remover, which you can find in any large supermarket.
posted by ereshkigal45 at 1:03 PM on July 21, 2005

I'd second the use of the RIT Dye Remover. It's great and cheap (usually around $2; since you mentioned multiple jeans, I'd buy two boxes).
posted by itchie at 1:08 PM on July 21, 2005

Soaking it in water with OxyClean (which is, by the way, a generally awesome product) will probably get it out. Your hardware store should have it.
posted by mkultra at 1:22 PM on July 21, 2005

mdn writes "blue + pink is gonna come out lavender, though, pollomacho."

A deep blue jean blue will cover the pink no problem. There may be a slight difference in colour but even if noticeable it'll look a lot better than pink fringed blue.
posted by Mitheral at 1:52 PM on July 21, 2005

Wash them alone first, then with bleach if that doesn't work. The red won't be really set in since it wasn't a real dye job.

I've done this, and washing with bleach took the red out without taking out too much of the blue. I've also done it with white shirt with green hearts on it (shut up, it was the 80s and I was in junior high); it unpinked the shirt and left the green bits alone.
posted by jennaratrix at 2:10 PM on July 21, 2005

Carbona Color Run Remover
posted by essexjan at 5:02 PM on July 21, 2005

Response by poster: Washing with RIT dye remover did the trick (smelled like hell, though). The jeans are restored to all-white fringe and the blue of the denim is restored to normal.

Thanks!
posted by scarabic at 1:08 AM on August 4, 2005