Bollocks. Vanish has ruined my dress, can I dye it??

[AwkwardAsAllGetout]

So what I thought was a quick, dress saving soak for a stupid salsa spill has actually left my lovely dress with a huge purple bleach stain. I’ve used the one for whites rather than colours and presumably it works by bleaching out the stain. I’m gutted as it was the most flattering dress and I only just bought it it’s a white and blue stripe jersey, could I dye it to perhaps a solid dark blue? Would it work over a bleach stain?

what's the fabric? If it's cotton it should dye easily.

95% viscose 5% elastane

You can’t dye over bleach. I have been disappointed maby times. Bleaching changes the structure of the fabric fibres and it just doesn’t take the colour. Even if you could, over dying stripes means you’d just end up with dark/lighter stripes, rather than a solid colour.

Unless you are prepared to wear it with the mark, I'd take a punt and try dyeing it. I've dyed bleach marked cotton trousers successfully. The elastane content means it probably won't go 100% the same colour as the dye would on something made entirely of natural fibres and you might get some colour difference between the navy and white stripes.

The other point about dyeing is that the thread used is probably polyester, as it has a small amount of stretch in it so works well with knitted fabrics.

Polyester won’t take up dye meant for natural fibres so if the thread is white, it will stay white.

For that tiny little bleach mark I'd take a punt at trying to colour it in with a navy permanent Sharpie.

I was thinking the same as PP. Get a Sharpie!

I was thinking Sharpie too!

Yes definitely a navy Sharpie!

I have a navy t shirt which I love but acquired identical marks to your dress, ( I think it came from using spray bleach in the kitchen.)

The Sharpie worked a treat! 😁

I just wanted to come back and say that dylon worked wonders! I tried the stuff you mix in a bucket first but it came out a bit patchy as it’s a fairly long dress in a small bucket! But then I bought the one that you add straight to the washing machine and it’s worked beautifully. Now my dress is navy with a subtle stripe which is still lovely and better than a ruined dress. I worried about my machine but I’ve done a couple of service washes and wiped inside the seal and nothing else has had any dye on it. Thanks for giving me the confidence to try it! I don’t know if it worked because it wasn’t a neat bleach stain if that makes sense?

Glad it worked out for you OP. I have never had an issue dyeing anything with bleach marks tbh - if it's a natural fibre and the same or darker colour, it seems to work.