Using bleach to lighten or remove the color from fabric is an ideal way to cold-water dye or tie-dye certain materials. But never forget that chlorine bleach is a very strong chemical, and you need to be careful when using it, even in small amounts.

Even though every natural and human-made fabric can be affected by chlorine, some are more resistant to bleaching than others are. The worst of the bunch, however, is cotton.

Best Types of Clothes to Bleach Tie-Dye 100% cotton fabrics are preferred, but cotton blends will also work well. That way, you’ll know what color the garment will turn without committing to the entire process. Here are some of the types of clothes to tie-dye with bleach: sweatshirts.

Depending on the fabric and dye, the bleach might destroy the fibers before removing most of the dye.

1. Fill a large bucket with water and bleach, with one part bleach to five parts warm water.
2. Place the item to bleach in the bucket.
3. Remove the item from the water after it fades sufficiently and rinse in water.

One way to bleach cotton safely is to soak it in a bleach and water solution. Usually, you need about 1/4 cup of bleach for every gallon of water you put in your sink or bucket. Once that is done, put your cotton item in the solution and leave it for about 10 minutes or so.

3. What Color Does PINK Turn when Bleached? Pink clothes can turn white when bleached. This is also a great way to turn originally white clothes that turned pink back to white.

Chlorine bleach has a chemical reaction with certain chemicals, most notably sunscreen and “brighteners” found in some laundry detergent, which makes the mixture turn bright pink.

If the fabric turns gray, continue with the process. One way to re-whiten the shirt is to wash it with bleach because bleach removes color from fabric. Unfortunately, bleach does not just remove color, it can damage fibers, causing them to break and fall apart. Bleach will not turn all fabric white.

Can you bleach light GREY? It’s usually OK to put grays in the whites load with bleach. A couple of things to consider here: First, since it probably is a cotton item, we want to make sure that it can be safely bleached. So you will want to perform the simple bleachability test first on the garments in question.

It’s usually OK to put grays in the whites load with bleach. I would expect some small portion of the grey to be bleached out each time you wash, but my experience is that this is usually almost imperceptible.

You can safely wash black, grey, brown, and other dark colors together. These colors are unlikely to transfer during the washing process, especially if you use cold water. In terms of which washing product to pick for dark clothes, most people (myself included) will point you to Woolite Darks liquid laundry detergent.

Grey t-shirts generally want to go with whites though. They don’t bleed, and any lightening is minimal. If you use bleach with the whites, don’t put the greys in there. I usually wash greys with light colors or dark colors, depending on how dark the grey is.

What about items with a little color on them? Any standard bleach (or Clorox Regular) should only be used on all-white items. However, any item with a little bit of color printed on the outside is a good candidate for Clorox’s new Smart Seek bleach, a solution specifically curated to treat “mostly whites” gently.

Removing or erasing the bleach stain

1. Apply a good swig of alcohol to your cotton wool ball.
2. Hold the damaged area and rub the stain, and the area around it, with the alcohol-soaked ball. The original colour of the garment will spread into the bleached area.
3. Rinse well in cold water.

For whites-with-colors that don’t like regular bleach and/or hot water, you can switch those out with a color-safe “bleach” (which contains hydrogen-peroxide) and/or cool water and still add the dye catcher. Those articles won’t be disinfected, but they should still be acceptably white. Bleach residue can wreak havoc.

In general, bleach should only be used for white pieces of clothing. Though it’s great for brightening your whites, bleach can lead to laundry disasters when used with certain types of colored clothing. Bleach can strip the dye straight out of colored clothing, leaving you with pale, faded results.

Simply wash the shirt with detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular Bleach2 in warm water using a regular cycle. However, if the embroidery thread is polyester, there is a good chance that it will be bleach-fast.