With some Oxyclean, the pink washed out of a cotton rag so #PeptoPants are a go.
I should have worn gloves because now one of my hands is bright pink, but these are saturated now. Something is happening, because they smell – not very sulfurous, but strongly like white school glue. I'm going to let them sit a while and then rinse them out.
The intention was to let them sit for about 20 minutes, but they're making a slight fizzing sound which could just be trapped air or could be some kind of reaction. I'm going to leave them while I go do the school run, so maybe another hour and 15. Pepto spends a lot longer in the digestive tract so chemically it seems reasonable, and the dyes shouldn't set a whole lot more if the whole thing stays damp. #PeptoPants
Now the washing machine is full of chalky pink water. I'm going to let them agitate for a bit, and then run a rinse or two. #PeptoPants
The water has gotten darker and murkier, but I can't get a decent picture to show the difference. The smell upon opening the washer was like Hellmouth and bubblegum. Maybe it's a good thing? #PeptoPants
After rinsing until the water ran clear. One of the tags took on a lot of dye, but the fabric and thread look mostly unchanged. It's hard to tell though, because they're still damp. As for smell, they smell like spearmint and something bitter which means it's hard to tell if the dye smell is dissipating or if it's just masked. On to a wash, with detergent because Oxyclean doesn't seem necessary.
Done the wash with detergent. The pink on the tag faded considerably, but my phone doesn't want to pick up the correct colour no matter how much I tinker with the camera settings. If there was any pink left in the fabric, it must be gone. They smell faintly medicinal if I put my face right up to them.
Now to do something risky: Put the pants in the dryer. If the smell is because the black dye reacted to the elastane, heating up the elastane might reactivate it. It's on low, and 🤞
Ready to call Project #PeptoPants a (tentative) success. The other techniques I tried before (salt, vinegar, baking soda, combos of those) did nothing. When I started today, the pants smelled strongly like burning erasers and sulfur. I could smell them if I put them on. Now there's a faint bitter scent that can only be detected if I actively get up close for a sniff. Hopefully wearing them doesn't reactivate the smell. I'm going to leave them to air out and settle overnight.
@nein09 Two thumbs up for strange science!
@erinbee congratulations! As the owner of sulfurous pants (I don't mind it too much right now), this has been very cool to watch.
@erinbee I think you get to call yourself a student of forbidden alchemy now
@nfagerlund Adding this to my resume, thank you
@erinbee this was a rollercoaster, I gotta tell ya. Thanks for sharing.
@erinbee hooray!