The Shirt That Ruined Them All

So, over the weekend I went on a shopping trip with friends while my husband was away with work. The mall in our town consists of a Harkins Theatre, American Eagle, some department stores, and a Bath & Body Works. Did I mention its all outdoors? Yeah. So we went to an indoor mall about an hour away. I bought an adorable mint colored sweater, beautiful pastel pink blazer, a beige tank, and a peachy-nude tank.

Mint sweater and beige tank

I wore everything once, except for the blazer, that was never worn. When I got home from the long weekend I tossed them all in the 'hang to dry' basket. Wednesday night I did a load of laundry out of the basket. When I went to take them out to dry I discover that my laundry is various shades of pink!!



Mint sweater, pastel pink blazer, light peach-nude tank, beige tank, white shirt


Meet The Culprit

Of course! My grandmother sent me this shirt in a package with items for my husband and Aubrey. I'm not really into tye-dye, but I figured I could wear it to the pool or something. I should have known to wash this alone since it it tye-dye. Duh!

I cannot describe how upset I was that my brand new clothes were ruined! I have trouble finding cute shirts I can nurse in for an affordable price. I was devastated. I felt like crying, over laundry. So many things were going through my mind. Now they're all trash. Can I fix any of these? How do I fix them? Vinegar? Baking Soda? I hate that stupid red shirt! I wish I could go back in time.

So I Googled it, of course. I saw that Rit Color Remover could take the dye out, or at least some of it. If I used it I also ran the risk of damaging the original color of my shirts. It was a risk I was willing to take since they were all ruined anyway.

My dear husband ran to Walmart for the color remover at nearly 9pm. He's definately a keeper! When he got back I followed the instructions on the inside of the box and started washing while he watched AJ. After doing two laundry cycles of laundry I didn't notice much of a difference. Maybe I gave up too soon, but I decided to just toss my beautiful mint sweater *sigh* and leave the rest alone. I'm lucky that I look good in the various shades of pink and peach they turned.



Mint sweater, peachy-nude tank, beige tank, white shirt.
You can kind of see that the colors faded a little bit, but not much.

My blazer was dry-clean only, so I left it alone. Which is what I should have done in the first place instead of washing it. Oh well! Live and learn!

Although this story doesn't have a happy ending, I learned something. Always sort your laundry and always wash a tye-dye shirt alone.