Many people are interested in how to restore the color of clothes if they have lost their original brightness. This happens due to manufacturers using poor quality dyes or improper care of the product. When washing, chemical detergents lead to deformation of the material and loss of pigment. The sun has a similar effect, as a result of which summer wardrobe items fade. You can paint any material of all shades using professional and folk methods at home.
Why does the color of fabrics fade?
To avoid color loss, eliminate certain activities that lead to this. Usually clothes deteriorate from improper drying: they simply fade in the sun. Most often, summer clothes suffer from ultraviolet radiation.
Another reason is the wrong washing temperature (too hot water, boiling) and poor choice of detergent. They wash out the color pigments from the fibers after each cycle. If an item is washed frequently and incorrectly, it will quickly become unusable.
The hot soleplate of the iron also negatively affects the color. Most fabrics are ironed from the inside out or through a protective mesh.
Some fabrics themselves are dyed poorly, so they fade soon after purchase. It is very difficult to fight this process; only re-staining will help.
Faded dark things
Is your black T-shirt torn and a little faded? Don’t rush to throw it away, it will still help you out. She is the one who will tell you how to return the color to black things. If the fabric has the ability to give off color, it means it will help restore the beauty of another product.
Before washing a black dress, wrap it in an old, fadeable T-shirt. The T-shirt will fade again and will help restore the dress to its former brightness and elegance.
Washing rules
A collection of mandatory washing rules, with them the problem of color loss will not bother the housewife for a long time:
- Sort things by color. It is better to run several cycles than to mix black with white or color. This is a basic rule that will protect clothes from premature damage.
- Always read the information on the tag. The notation is not difficult to understand.
- Before washing, turn the item inside out.
- Use an additional rinse to ensure all powder particles are washed out of the fabric fibers.
- Dry inside out and do not expose items to direct sunlight.
For colored clothes
There is a simple trick to caring for brightly colored clothes: immediately after purchase, fix the color with a saline solution, and then wash it. How to cook:
- Dissolve 3-5 tbsp in a bowl. l. salt.
- Stir the solution and immerse the product in it for 30-60 minutes.
This fixative is also used after washing. Works on red, black and other rich colors.
For black items
Black things usually get the most damage, and they also become the reason for damaged colored and white clothes. This is due to high washing and rinsing temperatures. It is better to wash black in cool water.
Check before washing to see if the fabric is fading. If yes, then it is better to wash such a product separately, even from other black items.
Advice Use special products for washing black linen, for example “Yplon Black”, “Luxus Professional”, “Synergetic” gel, “Laska 3D effect restoration black”, etc.
White clothes
Do not neglect gentle bleaches so that your laundry always remains snow-white, like new. Such products are added directly to the washing machine compartment.
Soft bleaches from chemical production
Today, manufacturers offer a lot of special products that can restore faded clothes. As a rule, they are used when washing clothes. However, before using them, you must carefully study the attached instructions, otherwise the damaged items may be completely damaged.
If home methods do not help, and gels and powders for black, for example “Laska”, are powerless, then try re-dying. There are many special compounds for textiles in household chemical stores. They have a number of advantages:
- The substances that make up the dyes do not remain in the fabric fibers after use, and therefore rarely cause an allergic reaction;
- The paints are suitable for restoring the color of any material, both wool and silk. It doesn’t matter what caused the product to fade, the result will definitely please you. The price of such funds is affordable;
- To “save” a thing, one coloring is enough. At the same time, you will be 100% sure that your favorite jeans or dress will become beautiful as before.
Textile paint is easy to use; washing with a special chemical is usually sufficient. For the procedure to be successful, follow these rules:
- When buying paint, choose high-quality and more expensive paint so as not to spoil the textiles.
- Read and follow the instructions carefully.
- Choose a product based on the type of fabric.
- Work in rubber gloves.
- Dilute the composition in a steel or enamel container.
If several items need dyeing, process them one at a time. If you do not follow the recommendations, you will get an uneven color with spots and streaks.
The most popular dyes include:
- Dylon is a powder that is used for natural materials. Coloring occurs during the washing process;
- Technochem is a universal preparation for any fabric. Designed for hand washing and machine washing;
- DKT-38 – dyes natural, silk, mixed fabrics and synthetics;
- DKT-37 – intended for polyamide material, wool and mixed types of fabrics;
- Simplicol – suitable for natural fabrics.
High-quality dyes do not violate the structure of products and are easy to apply. Manufacturers claim that such chemicals are not dangerous to human health. Be sure to follow the instructions to get a good result and not harm your clothes. If all else fails or you don’t want to deal with chemicals, take the item to a dry cleaner, where specialists will return it to its original color without harming it.
How to restore the color of clothes that have faded in the sun?
Various coloring products will help restore faded things’ brightness at home: tea leaves, tobacco, food coloring and unexpected products.
Traditional methods
First, let's try to refresh the color using folk methods. If this doesn’t work, we’ll move on to dyeing with store-bought and folk remedies.
Ammonia
A well-known color restorer is ammonia:
- Take a 20 ml bottle for 1 liter of warm water.
- Things are kept in the solution for about half an hour.
Suitable for white and color.
Starch
A mixture of starch, salt and citric acid helps restore brightness:
- Everything is put in equal proportions.
- Add soap shavings to the mixture and make a warm solution.
- They lower the item into the basin. Can be soaked overnight.
- After the procedure, the item is washed as usual.
Vinegar
If the fabrics have lost their fresh color and become rough, they should be rinsed after washing in a solution of white vinegar. The product is a fixative.
After staining in different ways, the vinegar solution is used as a final procedure.
Advice: Don't put off color restoration. The more paint is preserved in the fabric, the higher the chances of updating the brightness of the item.
Ammonia
The use of this substance is one of the most reliable and proven ways to restore the presentable appearance of clothes. It is usually diluted at the rate of 20 ml per 1 liter of water. Faded wool or cotton items are placed in such a solution at room temperature and left for 15 minutes.
If the product needs to be bleached, add a little bleach to the solution. To achieve crystal whiteness of things, they are boiled in this mixture for 30-40 minutes. However, you can boil products if there are no restrictions on their labels regarding the water temperature during washing.
Means to tint textiles
Securing or brightening the fabric is sometimes not enough. If there is too little pigment, all that remains is to dye the fabric.
Store products
Let's turn to hardware stores: what do they offer in order to restore the brightness of colored items?
Synthetic dyes for fabrics
These products are recommended for dyeing faded fabrics, as well as for creative experiments. Remember how in the 2000s everyone boiled their jeans in a dye solution?
According to the instructions, dilute the powder with the dye and hold the item until completely dyed. Be careful to buy a dye that matches the fabric of the product.
Bleaches
Gentle oxygen bleaches, which also work in cold water, help restore the whiteness of any fabric.
Home Recipes
Some home remedies have coloring properties. More often, clothes have to be cleaned of such products. But this time they will become our assistants. So, how to dye clothes a particular color?
Black
Use mascara or black ink. When soaking in saline solution, add a couple of drops of the substance and stir well. Don't forget to rinse the item.
This solution also strengthens and renews the black color: pour 20 g of tobacco into 1 liter of hot water and let it brew for 30 minutes. Treat the fabrics with the solution and wash.
Red and its shades
To give your pants and T-shirts a red color, rinse them in a solution of vinegar and baking soda. For 1 liter of water - 1 tbsp. l. each product.
Blue or cyan
Jeans and other items with a blue tint can be restored with ordinary blue. The saturation of the solution depends on the desired result and the original color of the jeans.
After dyeing, rinse the fabrics in a soda solution to enhance the brightness.
Beige, cream and brown
Black and green tea are some of the toughest stains to remove. Tannins fix the color on the fabric, and you have to resort to bleaches.
Brew strong black tea. Soak the fabrics in the solution or sponge them and let them dry before washing. The stronger the tea, the darker the shade.
Steaming onion peels, ground coffee, and nut shells will provide a similar result.
Yellow or orange
Save the orange peel, either fresh or dried will do. Steam it with boiling water and let it brew to get a rich orange drink. Apply evenly to clothing.
Green
You already guessed that a bottle of brilliant green, popularly known as brilliant green, is responsible for restoring the green color. Prepare a solution and soak clothes in it for 10-15 minutes, and then rinse well. Remember to use gloves to avoid accidentally staining your skin and a vinegar or saline solution to set the color.
Store-bought products for renewal and prevention of color loss
Due to the problems of fading of your favorite outfit, many products have been produced to restore its original appearance. For example, such chemical products are “Color Magic” (“Weasel”, balm), “Color Restorer” Dr. Beckmann, Antilin, Color Restorer powder from the manufacturer Pattera. The listed products can be purchased at any store or supermarket. However, there are also some nuances here: for colored items you need to buy balms or powders marked “color”, and for black things marked “black”.
Proper care
In addition to the basic rules of fabric care, you should know something else:
- Don’t wear things out, change your look more often. The need for frequent, sometimes daily washing quickly destroys the color of the product.
- Avoid “Whiteness” and other chlorine-containing products when cleaning black and colored items. For white, such stain removers are acceptable, but as a last resort, and only for natural cotton and linen.
- If an item sits in the closet for a long time, it may also lose color. Don't forget about bright sweaters and T-shirts.
- For delicate fabrics with special shades it is very difficult to choose a dyeing method, but dry cleaning specialists will help you.
And if the item is hopelessly faded or faded, and not a single method has worked, then there is a reason to please yourself with shopping. Just next time, pay more attention to the information on the item’s tag and proper care.
Onion peel
Our great-grandfathers knew how to restore the color of clothes using onion peels. This effective method works great on brown and green clothing colors. To obtain the necessary remedy, you need to boil ordinary onion peels in water for a long time. The result is a strong solution that will give faded and faded materials golden brown or greenish hues.
However, before doing this, you need to check on a small piece of fabric from the wrong side to see if the tone will change. The required color can be obtained by changing the concentration of the onion solution.
