Name: Tam
Message: Hello,
I have a 100% cotton jacket (lining is shiny). It was oringinally white and I dyed it black, only it turned out navy. I now want to get it back to white. Is this possible and how do I go about it?
Thanks in anticipation.

Nobody can say without knowing what kind of dye you used. Then again, it is almost always difficult to predict the results of attempting to remove a dye.

If you want to dye cotton black, you should use cool water dyes, not all purpose dye. The best dye to use is a fiber reactive dye such as Procion MX dye or Drimarene K dye (since you're in Australia, see Batik Oetoro), or Tintex Low Temp Dye (not Tintex hot water all-purpose dye), or Dylon Cool Water Dye (not Dylon Multi Purpose). All-purpose dye usually gives disappointing results on cotton. Also, you should use two to four times as much dye as the package instructs, when you are trying to get black.

Removing dye to turn something that is navy to white is unlikely to be 100% successful. Even a tiny bit of remaining dye will make it look dirty. It would make more sense to overdye the jacket to turn it all the way black.

There are two ways to try to remove your dye. One is with the use of ordinary household chlorine bleach (hypochlorite), which will damage any synthetic fiber content on the jacket; it will damage the cotton, too, unless you properly neutralize the bleach afterwards with Anti-Chlor (sodium metabisulfite) or color-safe oxygen 'bleach' such as OxyBoost.

The other is Rit brand Color Remover or Carbona Color Run Remover (sodium hydrosulfite), which is somewhat more gentle to fabric. You will probably need to buy more than one box for a washing machine load, and results cannot be guaranteed. I am not sure if you can find these brand names in Australia where you are, but there should certainly be similar products. Look for Dylon Colour Run Remover or Dylon Run Away to see if they contain sodium hydrosulfite.

(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)