Thursday, April 9, 2009

If at first you don't succeed....

...there's always a silver lining to the cloud. ...Or was it blue lining?

Must be blue, 'cause that's the color the bottom of our tub was when I drained the dye-remover solution out a few minutes ago. Lovely blue dye ran in streaks all over the bottom of the tub.

Oh yes - the fabric? Still blue. (If this story makes no sense to you, check out a previous installment.)

"Great. I soak blue fabric to turn it white, and instead I turn our white tub blue." The humor of the situation was not lost on me, but I would have laughed harder if I hadn't been picturing what my parents were going to say.

I can't believe how stubborn this fabric is. The "thrill of the chase and the excitement of the attempt" is beginning to fade a little. Too bad it's the only thing that's fading; the denim has no intentions of doing such a thing. If I cared enough to dig through my scrap pile and find the labels from these 3 pairs of jeans, I would write the companies and tell them this whole story in hopes of being hired to endorse their jeans; "Buy these jeans - they will never (ever, ever, ever, ever, ever) fade!" :) :) Now I know why faded jeans in the stores are so expensive. :)

So there I was, staring at blue streaks on a white tub. Slowly, ever so slowly, hope began to dawn. I knelt down and rubbed a rubber-gloved finger (this is dangerous stuff, this dye remover; might eat up your skin!...Never mind eating up the dye.) over one blue streak.

It came off.

Not only that, but the brown soap-scum that lies on the bottom of every old tub came off with it. Underneath was pure white - like a brand new tub.

Now I was really excited. (Yes, this is me; the person who hates to clean the tub.) I grabbed a scrubbing pad from the cleaning cupboard and briskly attacked the bottom of our tub.

It started turning white!!!! Really, shiny, new-y white! I've discovered a new tub cleaner! It takes 7 hours of soaking time, but it works really well!

So maybe the lining is silver after all. But you haven't heard the best part:

Mom went shopping this afternoon.

Guess what she came home with?

That's right; a white skirt. A white skirt for me.

Dear Mom. She knew I wouldn't care that I'll have to alter it to be able to wear it. I think she figured that even the most intensive sewing project couldn't be worse than my current one.

You know what? I think she's right.

6 comments:

Sandra said...

Well, I'm glad you look on the bright side of things Amber. Glad you got your tub clean too!
I don't like to clean either, especially if it looks the same when I'm done.
I'm glad your mom got you a white skirt. Very generous of her after all you've been through to try and dye denim.

Kristen Michelle said...

"Now I know why faded jeans in the stores are so expensive. :)"

Sheesh. I can always count on you to make me laugh. =)

Yay for your Mom! Wow. This is a very interesting look at how well "frugal" actually works. Hee-hee. No, no. I'm totally kidding.

P.S. I would totally LOVE to have been there to crack up with you at the *blue* tub!!!!!!!!

hannah said...

What a story! I just got through reading all your installments. You sound very creative and persevering. :)

Leah said...

This has been a very interesting episode in the life of Amber! It would make a great children's book! :)
I have had to laugh along with you as well.

On a different note.. I have changed the template on my blog, but in doing so I lost the counter from Living Waters and I can't find it on their site. Would you "happen" to have the HTML coding for it, or know where I could get it?

Amanda said...

I really have to laugh - you're SO funny!!!! Ha ha ha ha... :) :) :)

BonnieBlue said...

Poor thing, you've really been trying!

I've spilled bleach on denim before, and it turned white. I think if you get a couple gallons of bleach and pour it straight and evenly on the blue denim in the tub and then let it sit for just a couple hours, then wash in the washer with baking soda to counteract the acidity of the bleach, you may end up with white denim. You've got nothing to lose at this point. I admire your dedicate and frugality. It's not cheap when you put so much time into it.