It was lightly snowing yesterday, so while stuck at home I decided to shop at home in my Spring/Summer clothes closet for the coming seasons duds. Inexplicably, a few weeks before the start of each season I usually decide that "X" will be "IT" for this season. Sometimes its a fabric, sometimes a color. Whatever my choice, it is always out of step with what "they" choose, and once selected I hardly ever change my mind.
Several years ago for instance I chose 2 DB jackets from J. Peterman's sale bin. One was screaming yellow, one fire engine red. My selections are proof positive that the most expensive purchase you ever make is clothing you never wear. I don't particularly care for red clothing and only care for screaming yellow if it's Gallo fly yellow painted on vintage Italian autos.
The jackets sat in the closet, even after Mr. Clorox and I extensively customized them. Look up colorfast in the dictionary and a photo of these 2 jackets appear.
Before
Two years later, they fit much better, but still too outrageous to wear so I gave Mr. Clorox one more attempt, fully expecting to gift them to Goodwill. This time I let the coats soak in bleach for 2 days. 
After
I love how the yellow turned out. It's now a perfectly wearable Spring sport coat that doesn't draw undue attention to itself.
Before
The red is a work in process, and still damp from the dryer in the after photo.
After
I blame the bleach for dissolving the thread on all the buttons. Every button on both jackets has now been resewn.
Toad
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6 comments:
I think you look pretty great even in your screeming yellow jacket. You are highly creative Toad to give your non-wearables a new life. A man after my own heart. Have a terrific weekend!
Low-cost flat-out no-risk FUN!
While glancing at your color results I noticed some new material in your blog roll, clicked and up came this gentleman wearing his DBB in brown:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/5b749039de1acb8d2073b730b040c14a/tumblr_mixie1JG7C1r7nvcho1_500.jpg
Which made me naturally think of Rit dye and the evenmorefun you can have [messyoucanmake] with those two jackets should you want to keep on having fun blending your own colors. These good people have cooked up 500 custom colors for your garment coloring pleasure:
http://www.ritdye.com/colorit_color_formula_guide
-F
so with a little wear and some harsh chemicals, our youthfull brashness is softened, and becomes much more palatable, even pleasant.
I wondered for a while if Rit was still available. Prior to the yellow turning out so well I imagine all kinds of color options, but was unable to choose THE one. The red, while close, may be a failure
"The red, while close, may be a failure"
Looks kinda highly-sought-heavily-nuanced-signature-Nantucket-ish-Red-chic to me.
-F
Just a FYI - Rit dye makes a "color remover". I tried it once on a stained item that I wanted to re-dye and it worked great!
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