Dye Advice: Bleaching corduroy?

Hello again! I've mentioned in passing before that my pair of dark brown cords* suffered an unfortunate bleach mishap Thankfully it was isolated to just the back, but you can see that it soaked through to the inside too...

Well, I'm considering adding *more* bleach to the yoke specifically, to make it look intentional - do you think it would be possible to recreate this cream (not pure white) bleached look from the photos with a Clorox bleach pen? (It's two-sided, so has both a highlighter end & a 'brush' end).
Any tips on placement, or just general advice from those of you who have bleached garments in the past, would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

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*Apologies for the bad winter lighting, but this is the closest I could get to their true colour - these are the 'Lamledra' trousers by Seasalt Cornwall (apologies for not linking to them directly - I can't seem to paste URLs to YLF lately, for some reason?)

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2 years ago

Joy

Veteran

Rather than a pen, you might try soaking them in a bucket of warm bleach water, then washing. I have not tried this but an interested and will watch this thread.

Kim M

(website)

Active Member

Ya know, it's such a small spot in an unobtrusive area. I might try to use a black sharpie and color it in.

RobinF

I agree with Kim, it might be easier to fix the bleach stain than to do an all over bleach job. If you go with the bleach, I am not sure how well the pen would work, not sure if it would be concentrated enough. I would be more inclined to try using actual liquid bleach.

Cardiff girl

You could try dyeing the trousers a darker colour all over rather than bleaching them.l have a feeling it would give a better result.l like Dylon machine dyes but if you are determined to bleach them how about tie dyeing them just using a weak bleach solution rather than a dye.?

Star

I agree with Kim.

bella

I was going to suggest a sharpie, but I see that it's been mentioned several times. I would try with the sharpie first and only move onto the bleach if you aren't completely satisfied by the result.

Runcarla

My inclination would be to embroider over top the bleached area. If you aren’t handy with thread and needle, there are small patches or decals that can be affixed with heat from an iron.

Jaime

So many clever ideas. I would wear them with a shirt out !

Firecracker (Sharan)

I would not be confident about adding bleach myself, with a pen or otherwise. What kind of design would you make with the bleach pen? Since it's on the yoke, I would consider appliqueing over the entire yoke pieces with a subtle coordinating dark plaid cotton. And maybe adding the same fabric to the front, at the pocket openings.

Zaeobi

So many great ideas here, thank you! I'll have a think about them - & perhaps have a stern talk with DH about his 'drive-by' bleaching habits in the meanwhile

@Jaime
That's what I've been doing, but I've realised that I prefer to tuck in my tops during winter (when such corduroy fabric is appropriate) because it traps more heat. Practicality, lol!

@cardiff girl @Joy
Sorry I didn't clarify earlier - I'm looking to cover up ONLY the bleached section, not the entire pant. That might be overkill, since pure bleached white scares me, lol!

@Sharan
Thanks for clarifying it's called a yoke - the waistband is the bit above, oops! For some reason I thought 'yoke' only meant that front 'piece' on tops.
So this bleach pen actually has two ends, for different application sizes - a 'highlighter' style felt tip & a round brush (see photo). So I could do a more 'delicate' design or have the bleach 'ooze' out of the brush to cover more area, but you're right - it probably won't match the 'spilt liquid' of the original bleach...

@Kim @Star @RobinF @Bella
Do Sharpies only come in black, or do you think I could find a match for this dark brown? I've never used that particular brand before - is it just a permanent marker? If so, will it be enough to cover the bleach but also stay colourfast when I machine wash these trousers in the future?

@Carla
I'm able to hand sew, but I've never tried embroidery before (don't think rudimentary darning counts, lol). I like the decal idea, but maybe I could stitch it on instead, for strength?
Hmm now you & @sharan have got me thinking - maybe something like a lace patch, to stretch across the yoke for visual balance?

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Stagiaire Fash

Sharpie is a brand of permanent marker that’s popular in the US. In Germany, the most common brand seems to be Edding. You might have a different brand there, but I think they’re all the same thing. I bet you can find brown, but not that dark. Maybe use brown & black pens, one on top of the other.

I don’t think it has to be perfect, because who’s going to look there? So just getting away from the stark contrast to the rest of the garment will probably be enough.

Sharpie's come in brown but not sure it would match. Maybe a combo of brown and black? Or Sharan's idea of patching over the yoke is fun.

Thanks for clarifying! I'll see if I can find something similar for now (hopefully it's machine washable!).

If it's *still* too noticeable after that, I might attach some lace patches over the top (HK is going into mandatory testing next week, so let's see if I get the chance...) Was thinking brown lace, for some feminity but versatility?

This thread is making me glad to fix these trousers instead of donating them though - sustainability win! Plus it's surprisingly hard to find dark brown trousers anyway!

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