You may buy an expensive churidar or sari. But how would you feel if it fades with the first wash, or it loses colour, or the border colour makes patches on the body of the dress? You can’t use it any more. Depending on the stuff chosen or dyeing methods used, colour may remain in the dress after washes, or you can even ruin your dress with the first wash. Bright-coloured dresses have more chances of colour bleeding.
Tips to Retain Colour in Clothes Naturally
Here, I provide a few useful tips you can make use of before washing your clothes for the first time. A few tips can help to retain the dress colour for a long time and keep it new.
1. It’s always a better idea to dry your expensive clothes in the shade, or not under direct sunlight. Repeated exposure to the sun will fade the colour of clothes easily.
2. Take the dresses away from sunlight as soon as they dry. It’s also a good idea to iron the dresses before it completely dry. A little moisture in clothes helps you to make ironing perfect.
3. Make sure that the inner side of the clothes comes in direct contact with sunlight. If so, clothes won’t fade easily.
4. Before the first wash of the new dress, you need to test if the colour goes. For that, dip a sponge in water and rub it anywhere on the inner side, not visible from the outside. If the sponge gets colour, we can assure that colour bleeding will happen if dipped in water.
5. Once the chances of colour bleeding are identified, you can have the first wash in salt water. Add half a cup of salt to one bucket of water and mix well. Use this water to clean clothes. You can also add extra shine to your faded clothes by washing them in salt water.
6. If natural methods are used for dyeing, there are more chances for colour bleeding. Such colours can also attack the body and skin. So it’s better to wash the dress once in salt water before you use it for the first time.
7. Use cold water to wash colour-fading and colour-bleeding dresses. While you wash kurtas and shirts, turn the inner side outwards before you wash.
8. Never dry a bright coloured dress under direct sun. The colours will fade quickly.
Giving a new colour to a cotton dress
It’s possible to give life to cotton dresses with faded colours. New colours can be given using fabric dye powder. It’s available in markets. Boil a little fabric dye powder in water and dip the cotton costume in it. The dye should reach every part of the dress uniformly. Boil it for 5 minutes. Add a handful of salt and boil again for 5 more minutes. Dip the dress in one bucket cold water and hang it to dry. Never squeeze the cloth to remove water.
Image source: Pixabay
Also read topics on dress caring tips. Here is the page link. Click on the images in the gallery to read.
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