Name: Patt

Message: I have a problem.  I managed  to get spots from a bleach type product on one leg of my new spandex/cotton dark green slacks. I'm wondering if painting a design on this fabric to disguise the bleach spots (8 dime size) might help me make these pants wearable.  Can you suggest a type of paint that will work on 93%cotton 7% spandex?

First see the following page:
"How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?"

It would be a good idea to neutralize any remaining bleach in the spots with Anti-Chlor or ordinary drugstore 3% hydrogen peroxide. Let it soak for fifteen minutes, no more, and then wash it out.

You are right not to try to dye the pants a solid color. You may find that a fabric marker helps considerably in covering up the white spots. This is worth trying regardless of what your next step may be, since it will make the spots less obvious. Keep the fabric marker, in case you need to reapply it after many launderings.

Fabric that is made of 93% cotton plus 7% spandex is easy to dye with a cool water fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye. You can use this dye to paint, to tie-dye, or, easiest of all, dye in a mottled pattern using low water immersion dyeing. See "How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing". This kind of dye is not set with heat, but instead with soda ash (the main ingredient in washing soda), which is not damaging to spandex.

Do not use a hot water dye, such as Rit or Tintex all-purpose dye. All-purpose dye requires hot water, which is damaging to spandex.

You can also use any good acrylic-based fabric paint. Most fabric paints are transparent and will not show up against a dark background. Look for a paint labeled as being metallic, pearlescent, or merely opaque, so that it will show against the dark part of your fabric. Metallic or pearlescent paints give very interesting effects that may or may not be what you want, depending on the style of your slacks. The brand of metallic fabric paint I most recommend is Lumiere, which is made by Jacquard Products. There are several good brans of opaque non-metallic fabric paint; an excellent one is Neopaque, also made by Jacquard products. 


Both Lumiere and Neopaque require heat-setting with an iron (see the manufacturer's instructions) unless you mail-order an additive called Jacquard AirFix which, when added to the paint, makes it able to set without heat. You can mail-order Jacquard AirFix from Jerry's Art Supplies. (Please help support this web site. Thank you.)