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I am trying to fade the color of this cotton cloth:

Photo of fabric

I tried a hot solution of bleach, but very little color comes out. I also tried paint thinner, xylene, a fairly strong HCL mixture (a.k.a. muriatic acid) solution, and IPA.

Is there something else I can try?

Joachim
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fixit7
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    What kind of fabric is it (cotton, synthetic, etc.)? Do you know how it was dyed (the thread or the whole fabric)? Please focus and provide details and we can reopen. – Erica Jul 30 '19 at 23:13
  • Cotton. I do not know how it was dyed as I bought it at a fabric store. – fixit7 Jul 30 '19 at 23:21
  • Please edit it into the question. You've been an active StackExchange member for quite a while and the expectations for your questions are somewhat higher than for a new user. – Erica Jul 31 '19 at 00:49
  • I think it is clear enough. Vote to reopen. In addition, do you have any idea how the cotton was painted, what kind of pigment was used? – Joachim Jul 31 '19 at 11:01
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    @fixit7 another user added the cotton information. I encourage you to pay attention to details like that to help you get the most useful answers for your situation. – Erica Jul 31 '19 at 12:20
  • @Joachim I have no info on how the cotton was painted or dyed. The fabric was bought at a fabric store at least 5 years ago. – fixit7 Jul 31 '19 at 14:30
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    sorry, voting to close. There is no way to answer this question. Depending on how the cotton was dyed it may be impossible to extract the color. Without knowing how it got there, there is no way to express how to get rid of it. – rebusB Aug 20 '19 at 20:58
  • Try soaking it in bleach for longer period, and keep on checking till you achieve the desired shade – Bella Swan Aug 21 '19 at 11:07
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    Use color remover. A product exists for this purpose and is better than throwing completely random products at it for no reason other than you got some weird idea that beer would fade color. – Allison C Aug 21 '19 at 11:48
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    The question is likely answerable, but the bare minimum of research was not done. Color remover is not an obscure or hard to find product; I can find it in any big box store that sells dyes and stain removers. – Allison C Aug 21 '19 at 11:51
  • Color remover was tried and it too failed. – fixit7 Aug 21 '19 at 13:26
  • Honestly, at this point, you're better off going and buying fabric that's already the color you want instead of continuing down this path. If you haven't already, you're probably close to sinking more money into this activity than you would into a new cut of fabric. – Allison C Aug 22 '19 at 11:54

2 Answers2

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Depending upon where you live, you could put it out in the Summer sunshine. Might take a while, but sunlight seems to fade everything that I expose to it, including the sunshade fabric which is specifically designed to resist UV fading.

Henry Taylor
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The material was soaked for 2 hours in a bleach solution that had been brought to the boiling point.

enter image description here

fixit7
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  • Did this work? It is not clear from your answer. It looks unchanged. – Joachim Aug 21 '19 at 17:54
  • It partially worked. The white area in the middle. Not sure why it is not uniformly white ? – fixit7 Aug 21 '19 at 23:35
  • I thought that was residue :) It seems like the part that did get bleached was the top: was it maybe sticking out of the bleach for a while? Maybe the bleach needs to oxidize? – Joachim Aug 22 '19 at 08:35
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    @Joachim The part that got bleached was at the bottom of the bowl where the fabric was soaking. But Allison is right, I might as well buy new fabric in the color I want. – fixit7 Aug 22 '19 at 17:29