# Any way to get bleach stain out of a blue T-shirt? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 16, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-get-bleach-stain-out-of-a-blue-t-shirt/207705 "2003-10-16T02:08:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-get-bleach-stain-out-of-a-blue-t-shirt/207705/1 "2003-10-16T02:08:15Z")
I have an awesome blue T-shirt that my friend bought me last Christmas that says “WIZARD IS ABOUT TO DIE, NEEDS FOOD BADLY” with an old graphic of a plate of meat from the Gauntlet games. I was doing my laundry recently and spilled bleach on this shirt, which made me quite sad because it was my favorite LAN party T-shirt. Is there any way to make this shirt “like new” again? The bleach stains are in the form of a couple of white spots near the bottom of the front of the shirt. Is there anything I can cover this up with or “paint” over it with, maybe? Or anything else I could do? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-get-bleach-stain-out-of-a-blue-t-shirt/207705/2 "2003-10-16T02:29:14Z")
Bleaching is not usually reversible. You can either re-dye the shirt, or do a neater job of bleaching. If the white spots are low enough, you could carefully dip the bottom edge of the **dry** shirt in bleach, or dye, and let chemistry happen. Be quick about dipping, or the bleach will wick up into the rest of the shirt. Then rinse _down_ the wet shirt-bottom in the shower. The shirt will never be the same, but if you’re careful about it, you could replace the stain with a nice customized stripe. ---
**Author:** ![lesa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/34f0e0/32.png) [@lesa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lesa)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-get-bleach-stain-out-of-a-blue-t-shirt/207705/3 "2003-10-16T03:13:03Z")
You probably won’t be able to restore the shirt completely to normal. However, since it’s a humorous shirt you wear for fun, you can probably salvage it. Working with dye is very tricky, so I suggest buying some fabric paint. It’s cheap and comes in plenty of colors. If you or one of your friends can paint, paint something that looks like computer graphics over the white spots. ---
**Author:** ![laigle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@laigle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/laigle)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-get-bleach-stain-out-of-a-blue-t-shirt/207705/4 "2003-10-16T03:15:59Z")
Blue’s tricky. With black you can usually get away with a Sharpie, but with colors you have to get an exact match. The shirt is from [www.gameskins.com](http://www.gameskins.com), if you didn’t know, so you could get a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-get-bleach-stain-out-of-a-blue-t-shirt/207705/5 "2003-10-16T03:29:48Z")
If it’s in the middle, you could splatter the rest of it to match. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-get-bleach-stain-out-of-a-blue-t-shirt/207705/6 "2003-10-16T03:36:37Z")
Thanks for the suggestions. My friend actually got the shirt at Hot Topic, which I knew beforehand…but I like my shirts free, so if I can’t reverse or cover up the effects of the bleach, I’ll just wear it when I’m alone at home. Thanks for the link anyway. I wear semi-expensive clothes to school (my school has a dress code), so I rationalize by not paying for my T-shirts (I have a lot of free T-shirts from sporting events, conventions, Comic-Con, volunteer activities, promotions, gifts, etc.). I’m considering the “customized stripe” idea or just trying to find a really close dye color and dipping it and hoping nobody notices. Any other ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-way-to-get-bleach-stain-out-of-a-blue-t-shirt/207705/7 "2003-10-16T03:52:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nanoda \* > \*\*If it’s in the middle, you could splatter the rest of it to match. \*\* It’s near the bottom, and there’s a big design that I don’t want to mess up.