How to fade or lighten natural linen

4 years ago

I bought a length of vintage linen online. In the pictures, it was off-white/pale grey. In reality, it's about the same shade as a brown paper bag - brownish-grey, but as dark as a brown paper bag. It's much darker than I need or can use.

I've searched online for 'how to bleach linen,' 'how to fade linen,' etc., to no avail. All I get is results for how to get stains out of linen or remove dyed-in color from linen. I want to remove the natural brown from the linen and make the cloth several shades lighter. In the picture, you can see a brown paper bag on the left and a white piece of paper on the right. The cloth is in the middle. I'd like to tone it down to about the same color as is shown on the selvedge edge. Then it would be useful to me. Does anyone here have expertise on how to lighten linen? By the way, I need it for a project I'm making for Christmas (we're in late November), so I can't just hang it out in the sunshine for a few months.

There has to be a way that natural linen is faded or bleached down to white for tablecloths and so on. I don't need it bright white. I just also don't need it BROWN.

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Comments (4)

althea_gw
4 years ago
Sunshine is the very best way to bleach linen.

I love the color of natural linen. A couple of good washing with borax added to your detergent will freshen it. Then, while it is still damp, roll it up and put in in your freezer overnight, remove it the next day and give it a hard press. A cold mangle is better, but they are hard to find. That process really brings out the natural sheen. Hang it in the sun to begin the natural bleaching process.
colleenoz
4 years ago
Try Googling "How to bleach natural linen". There are several methods suggested as linen naturally darkens over time.
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Lars
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Chlorine bleach will lighten linen, but it must be diluted, and you should not leave the linen in the bleach too long, or the fibers will be weakened.

If you have enough yardage, you can try experimenting with small pieces with varying dilutions.

You might want to contact the Chlorox website.

If you do in in a washing machine, you will need to dissolve all of the bleach before you add the fabric, and it will require a fairly large amount of bleach to noticeably lighten the linen, but it can be done in stages; i.e., you can repeat the process to remove more color. I've only done this with cotton, but it will work with linen also, although it will be slightly more difficult with linen.
Lars
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
scarbowcow here's a piece of natural linen that I experimented with

I cut a small rectangle for this remnant of natural linen that I have (I have lots of this linen), and I put the sample on the right in water to wet it and then in a solution of 50% chlorine bleach and 50% hot water in a small Pyrex bowl. I left the linen in for about 15 minutes, stirring it with a wooden spoon, and then I rinsed it out. There are still tiny slubs that did not get completely bleached, but it is still a very different color than before. It also does not appear any weaker than before, but this is a rather coarse linen and was pretty strong to begin with.

Anyway, you can definitely remove the brown color from the linen. You might want to start with a weaker solution and leave it in longer, such as in the washing machine. I think having hot water helps, but the bleach creates a bit of heat on its own. Also, you have to use fresh bleach, as it loses it power quickly over time.

The color I ended up with is a sort of ivory or cream color, and so you should not expect a bright white.