The Yellow Pants...cont

Where was I?

So I turned some old work pants into skinny jeans by taking in the pant leg. Next I emptied a big plastic bin and filled it full of hot water and bleach.

This was after the first day. The pants started off as a really dark wash so it took a little bit longer.

For two days I let my pants sit in the bleach mix until they turned white (actually a soft yellow).

Bleached jeans

I used the ColoRit Color Formula to pick the perfect shade of yellow to color my jeans. I chose color #59 so I picked up some pink and yellow Rit at Wal-Mart.

I combined the whole bottle of yellow and half the bottle of pink to some hot water and dumped my wet white jeans into the bucket. For about 5 songs (15 mins) I stirred the jeans around in the orangeish mixture. The instuctions from the internet said to stir for 30 mins but the color of the water was starting to freak me out. I did not want orange jeans (I guess they would have made for a funky Halloween outfit). So after about 15 mins I pulled the jeans out of the water and rinsed them with hot water until they water ran off clear. Than I rinsed the jeans in cold water. Very quickly and gracefully I ran the pants up to the washing machine and washed them in cold water.

Before the wash

 

After a good wash and drying I had some new yellow pants.

Yes, they are a little baggy. That is a negative turnout of the project. I used jeans that had a lot of lycra in them. Well, I guess the bleach soak totally took out the stretch from the pants. They don't fit like they use to.

 

I will call them boyfriend jeans.

 

The color is also a lot brighter yellow than I wanted. I guess I should have soaked them for 5 more songs to get that pretty mustard yellow color.

 

Here's what I would do differently if I did the project again:

 

Zip up the zipper:

When I set the pants in the bleach I had the zipper all the way down on the pants. Well the zipper and the bleach made a nice little hole in the pants.

Who would'a thought?

 

Start with white jeans:

The bleaching process was such a hassle. I had to mix up a new batch of the bleach mixture three times. It got to be a little messy. I got bleach spots on my favorite pajama shirt. Starting with white jeans would have made the project really easy. The awful smell wasn't great either. 

 

Don't use lycra jeans:

Unless you want colored boyfriend jeans.

 

This turned out to be a really fun project. It was fun to see the progress.

 

Speaking of progress

I love them