Black to Brown

Years ago, I participated in the Color Me Beautiful program and learned what colors were most flattering for me to wear as an "autumn" with my red hair and freckles. But, as time passed I began ignoring the advice to coordinate my wardrobe by limiting purchases to a certain color pallet.  Then, a few weeks ago, after watching some free online videos called Dressing Your Truth, I made a decision to eliminate some black from my closet in exchange for the more-flattering-for-me, brown. Black really does nothing for me except make me look older. Who need that!

 Rather than just give away all of that black, I decided to experiment and try to change the black to brown with.........bleach! Guess what. It worked!!

The tee shirt on the left is 60% cotton and 40% polyester. The sweater on the right is 100% cotton. They both were black like the middle turtleneck before I threw them in the washer with about a half cup (I admit to not measuring!) bleach and enough water to cover them. After about 20 minutes (again, just guessing) of soaking I drained the water and added some vinegar to the rinse water to, hopefully, set the new color.

None of this is scientific, as you can see, but I'm happy with the results. I wore the sweater Monday and it didn't fall apart so I guess my experiment worked!
Have you tried bleaching clothing to change the color? Any suggestions are welcome.