I
never knew that when you purchase an article of clothing that has both
black and white on it, you are playing a game (not the fun kind): the
fabric dye might run or it might not. You might just wear the item 1-2
times and then after the first wash it is game over because the black has bled
onto the white. Technically the dye should be set and not bleed so
terribly, but it might, and that is all.
So this is what happened:
I
bought a dress from The Limited on a mega sale… it was the only one, in
my size, marked down, and it was mine. A pretty black and white dress,
with a gold zipper down the back, and it was the perfect length. It was a
S-C-O-R-E, since I am taller than 5 feet, to find a dress in my size
with the proper length is a challenge. I saved it to wear on a special
Sunday, and then I wore it to work. This pretty modest dress got many
compliments, it was comfortable, and it became my favorite.
Then
came the day that I wanted to wash it. I read the label… “machine wash
cold with like colors and tumble dry low, dry clean for best results”.
It was tempting to throw it in the wash and simply air dry it… but I
wasn’t going to risk it. I threw it in the hamper, to save it for a trip
to the dry cleaner, of course for best results. But there it sat, at
the bottom of the hamper for one three weeks. I decided that I would just compromise and gently hand wash this dress instead, at 10 o’clock at night…
(In
retrospect: WHYyyyY, I should have just kept sipping on my tea, eating
freshly baked cranberry bars, and reading my book instead.)
I turned on the cold water, and as I began to submerge the dress into the water, the black dye began to run right before my eyes, hitting
staining the white stripes. I snatched it out of the water, I tried to
stop the mean black dye from hitting anymore of my white stripes, but
that was it, the perfectly white stripes were now gray, and blotchy. I
tried to clean the stains with hydrogen peroxide… nothing… so then I
tried rubbing alcohol… nope, so I just sprayed stain remover on the
darker spots and let it just be. I turned to Google, and after reading
through tips, I concluded that since my mom is 400 miles away, my next
best bet for help would be the dry cleaner down the street. They open at
7 in the morning, so I’d stop by on my way to work.
In
the morning the spots were lighter, YES! So off I went to the dry
cleaner on my way to work. The nerd in me thought, I will take a before
and after picture and write a fantastic review for this cleaner. Well…
to make this long story shorter… the worker at the dry cleaner said that
he couldn’t help me my dress me. The dress was probably
ruined. No guarantees, actually he made it sound like there was a better
guarantee that the dress would get even more ruined once it fully would
get cleaned. So off I went, with my dress in hand. But it isn’t over
yet….
