Unintentional Dye Jobs

Yup. I forgot the cardinal rule of new clothing: Wash separately the first time. So I sorted through the affected clothes. Some were dark enough that it didn't show. Some I thought it actually improved the color. Some I didn't care about (pink underwear? so what?). A few I winced at, because I had liked them before the accidental dye-trap and now they looked hideous. However, I actually managed to save those items, rather to my surprise.

Most importantly, they hadn't had time to dry. I stuck them back in the washer, put a cup of bleach in the liquid bleach cup, a cup of detergent (Tide Free) in the tub, along with a good smattering of Borax. I checked after the first run. It had gotten more out than I'd honestly expected. So I repeated the process. This time, there were actual pure whites visible. I was shocked. So now I'm running them through a rinse cycle, to clean out all the extra soap I loaded them with. Assuming no more pink shows up at the end of that cycle, into the dryer they go. Not sure if it's relevant or not, but I had the washer set on "large" for the bleach-runs, even though it was a small load. That was accidental, but I suspect it may have helped dilute the dye.

What was the cause of all this bleeding, you might ask? :^) The purple silk outfit I picked up in Boise and wore to Kate's graduation. Next time it'll get washed completely separately...except for one white item inserted to see if the purple still bleeds out pink. However, it's nice to know I've found a solution should I do something silly like this again. The only worry is whether the bleach will leach out any of the original colors as well, but if it already looks hideous... *shrugs*

By the by, the worst looking one of the lot was a tie-dyed tanktop originally in pale yellows and blues, with some white. The best description I can give of the dye result (before bleaching) is... bloody, moldy scrambled eggs. Yech. After the two bleach-runs, it looks like its old self again.