Aaaaaaaaaaagh.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh.
Well, okay, maybe I'm overreacting. But just when I was feeling all complacent about my bamboo swing dresses, the purple one came out of the wash, and I saw: pictured above. I'm not sure what these stains are. It had been in the laundry hamper when I left for the beach, and I'm wondering whether there was something else damp in there, and this is mildew. Nothing else from that washload seems to have mildewed, but you never know. Anyway, I've treated them with Grandma's Secret and a second wash, to no avail. And they're fairly front, center, and noticeable.
So now I'm sitting, as they say, with my options.
The most obvious option, of course, is to write it off as a loss and replace it. I did leave myself that no-buy loophole. I could relegate this dress to "pajama/trash dress" and buy another to fill its place. Again, I did give myself that loophole specifically.
BUT. I'm kind of loath to lead with that option. Already I'm pondering salvage and refurbishment ideas for another dress, and it occurs to me that this dress might well be my refurbishment guinea pig. In other words, if I'm going to learn to dye, why not learn to dye on a dress that's already sort of a write-off, in the sense that I really can't wear it publicly as it is right now.
It was a cheap dress to begin with, and I'm not as finicky about the fabric as I am about wool. I am wondering about bleaching it all over to try and remove those stains, on the off-chance that they are mildew. They don't seem to be coming out otherwise. I wouldn't bleach a wool dress, but I think I'd risk it with this one to try and take out those stains, because they would show through dye, I think, unless I chose a really dark dye.
I could, of course, just choose a really dark dye. This purple is kind of bright --- I've never been entirely happy with how bright it is, in fact, so an opportunity to change it appeals to me. But it occurs to me that possibly the way to go would be to try some color remover first. Then I could see whether the stains remain or not, and bleach them if they do. (UPDATE: on further research, yes, I'm opting for color-remover, not bleach). THEN I could dye the dress whatever color I wanted: this Rose Quartz, for instance, looks kind of yummy, and I don't have a dress that color at all. Or Petal Pink. Or I could try green, if I wanted to go darker. I've been afraid to buy a green dress, because greens can be so iffy, but this color looks as though it might work for me. I've been surprised by how good I feel in my emerald-green cardigan, which encourages me to try more greens.
If it works out, then I have a new dress from the old one. If not, I haven't really lost anything. This dress is otherwise in good shape --- no holes under the armpits as yet. It's worth trying to salvage.
Meanwhile, I think I'd want to dye Camellia either indigo or royal blue. I would just overdye her current color, without doing the color-remover step, so it might be a little more grayed than the true color represented in the dye swatch, which would be fine.
Being Fashion Girl today in my Sierra, blue EVA Birks, and a t-shirt turban for my wet hair:
I'll be going outside to sit and work momentarily, so once again we shall see how the heavier wool performs in the summer heat, but so far it's been a lot better than I had expected. Sierra continues to be versatile, go-anywhere, do-anything, and I feel reliably good in her, no matter what else I happen to be wearing.
UPDATE:
I have ordered some dye. Going with Rit, because it seems straightforward, though maybe if I really get bit by the dye bug I'll branch out into Dharma dyes. I ordered color remover for the purple dress, which I hope will also take care of the stains, then Petal Pink,which seems pretty yummy. I ordered one pack of Royal Blue and one pack of Denim Blue to try on my Camellia --- though if the Petal Pink doesn't work well with the stains on the purple dress, I might just dye it blue and leave Camellia for later. I'm definitely going to use it as my experiment dress first, then consider what I want to do when the stakes are a little higher.
ALSO: Looking at all the Australians in my Instagram feed wearing boots and scarves makes me want it to be fall already.