Blue!?!

[eredien]

Unfortunately, this entry is not about esgalaith's fuzzy cat.

I have been very productive in the past two days, cleaning my house, doing laundry, putting away books (more on this in a future post), and generally making my half-moved-in-to apartment livable.

I was so proud of how I'd saved my delicate laundry for last, and set it in on the delicate cycle, so as not to ruin the $100+ worth of new and gently used clothes I just bought two weeks ago.

You have to understand that the last sentence is a rare one. I hardly ever buy clothes. And when I do they don't fit, I don't like them, and/or they're too expensive for me to even get them, and so I just wear what I have until it starts falling apart.
For some reason, the corporate American workplace in which I find myself currenly ensconced frowns upon t-shirts emblazoned with Neil Gaiman characters.

So two weeks ago I trudged through the floodwaters (our roof was leaking, there were boats in other parts of the state) without a coat on to the Mecca of Shopping which is The Garment District. I emerged, much to my suprise, with over 10 items of sensible, beautiful, well-fitted work-appropriate clothing for less than $200, having paid no more than $12 for anything in the store.

Some of the followng items were in the load of laundry I just did:

- a brand-new, brought-from-England and treasured William Morris tea towel featuring the frontispiece to the Kelmscott Press edition of News from Nowhere
- a brand-new white two-piece summer sweater set with tiny inoffensive pink flowers and clusters of equally small and tasteful pearls, bought to go with the
- pink and taupe skirt
- a taupe linen short skirt
- a taupe linen short-sleeved summer blouse
- a taupe linen pair of shorts which are the only pair of shorts I own
- a comissioned-from-a-friend one-of-a-kind dragon t-shirt with wings on the back I was going to wear to Anthrocon
- a blue silk wraparound skirt with silver embroidered peacocks which I thought had been washed before.
- a white bedsheet
- a pair of light green linen pants
- a beautiful long semi-chinoserie-style gold raw-cotton button-down shirt

The skirt had not been washed before.

Everything is now blue. Not even a uniform shade of light blue, but a kind of tie-dye effect with patches and concentrations.

The first small load, after soaking in color-safe bleach for an hour, is now on the extra-extra-rinse cycle in the washing machine.

Also, due to the depravaties of the washing machine, the hem of the peacock skirt unraveled in the wash. The peacocks, by the time I fished them out, were laughing, winking, and nudging each other, complimenting themselves on a job well-done in turning what was a extremely productive two-weekends-in-a-row spurt into something a bit more frustrating.

I don't want to or have money to go buy new clothes again. Sigh.

Comments

[sovay]

a brand-new, brought-from-England and treasured William Morris tea towel featuring the frontispiece to the Kelmscott Press edition of News from Nowhere

That's an incredibly specialized tea towel . . .

*hugs*

[eredien]

It is. Fortunately, I think I bleached most of the blue out of it.

[fangtsu.livejournal.com]

Sad stuff that is. News though of a surprize kind. I'll be in Boston, Sunday! Going to briefly show at Anime Boston. Don't miss the rare event ^_~

[eredien]

Oh my goodness! Where?!? What time?!?

[breimh.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I've had such things happen. Typically not when I'm washing new clothes, but when I'd try to use bleach, I would end up with splotching and splash effects. The last time was when I was doing a load of dress slacks and work shirts that purrzah and I needed for the week.

And we know the feeling of not liking clothes shopping and having little to no money for it, too. It can be very disheartening.

I hope things look up, soon.

[axonfuel.livejournal.com]

For clothes, Hell is other clothes. I'm sorry you had to go through such a nuisance.

[esgalaith.livejournal.com]

Ack! T'would have been much better for you, I think, had this post actually been about Blue of the fuzzy variety. Um. NEVER EVER EVER was any colours and whites together! Silk dyes can be particularly evil with regards to bleeding. Though I guess you know that now . . .

Bleach should restore all linen items to a uniform colour, though possibly no longer the shades you started with. Be sure to follow the directions on the bleach bottle.

[nucl3arsnke.livejournal.com]

Aww, I'm sorry. I also offer hugs, and co-misery. I had a pink tank top that turned everything pink, even long after its first washing. I eventually gave it away.