Nylon fabric is a synthetic polymer fabric that is exceptionally strong and elastic.
It is tough, abrasion-resistant, and easy to wash or to dye.
Nylon also has many uses, such as clothing applications, and functional applications such as tire cords, ropes, seatbelts, carpet, hoses, conveyor belts, sleeping bags, tents, parachutes, and some civil engineering materials.
Taking care of your nylon fabric isn’t that difficult if you know what you are doing.
Can nylon fabric be bleached?
Bleaching nylon is possible as long as you take care to do it properly. You must dilute the bleach and let it wash like normal with a full load of laundry included with your nylon materials. To dilute, use 1 capful of a strong detergent, 1/2 cup of bleach, and 1/4 cup of vinegar.
What Happens if You Bleach Nylon?
The more times you wash your white nylon fabric with a mild detergent, the more chance there is for it to become discolored and even yellow, and no one likes their white clothes to be yellow.
Bleaching nylon is possible as long as you take care to do it properly. Bleach is a very harsh agent, and no matter what you are bleaching, you want to make sure you are using it correctly.
If you bleach your nylon, you should be able to get rid of any stains or discoloration you might have gotten on your fabric.
To bleach your nylon, you will:
1. Fill Your Washing Machine:
First, you want to put in your items and fill your washing machine with the desired amount of water.
Adjust the water level to make sure that it makes sense with your load.
If you are only washing one item, you will need less water than if you are washing many.
Make sure you are using warm water.
2. Dilute Your Bleach!
Bleach should always be diluted when you use it to prevent your items from being ruined and to prevent any areas where the bleach was more concentrated than others.
A good dilution combination includes:
- 1 capful of a strong detergent
- 1/2 cup of bleach
- 1/4 cup of vinegar
You don’t have to mix these in advance and can pour them into your washing machine, but only after it has filled with the desired amount of water.
If you pour it in before the water, you could ruin your clothes when the chemicals rested on them.
You should also be careful about what type of bleach you are using
3. Wash Your Fabric:
After your machine has the proper water and bleach mixture, you will just run a regular wash cycle with your machine.
If you remove your clothes from the wash cycle and the stain is not completely gone, or you did not get your intended results, you can repeat this process (Steps 1-3) until you do.
4. Dry Your Fabric:
After you have repeated the above steps as much as you needed to get your intended results, you can dry your fabric how you would regularly.
Depending on how delicate an item you are working with, you could either use a dryer or line dry your items.
How Do You Whiten Nylon Fabric?
As stated above, bleaching your fabric will help you whiten it.
This is not the only option to whiten your fabric, so you have other choices if you are nervous about using harsh bleach on your clothing.
Some alternative options include:
Lemon Juice:
One very natural and counter-intuitive solution to whitening your fabric includes lemon juice.
Lemon juice and sunlight can act as an all-natural bleaching agent.
This will not be as effective against stains but should work well to remove yellowing that was created over time.
To bleach your clothing with lemon juice, you will:
- Fill a spray bottle with 1/2 cup of lemon juice. Do not add water to the lemon juice.
- Spray the lemon juice on all yellow areas of your clothing item.
- Place the fabric outside in the sunlight. This can either be done on a clothesline, or you could place down a towel and lay the fabric item on top of it as long as it is properly laying in direct sunlight.
- Depending on the thickness of the fabric, you will need to leave it out in the sun for anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
- Periodically check on the fabric to see if the yellowing is gone.
- If the yellowing is not gone in three hours, add more lemon juice, and repeat this process until all yellowing is gone.
- Once you are satisfied with the way your fabric works, run it through a regular wash cycle to get rid of the lemon juice.
Even though it can take time, this process is a great and natural way to get rid of yellowing without the use of harsh chemicals.
Color Remover:
Another alternative to just bleaching is using a color remover.
Color Remover does still contain bleach, but it is a non-chlorine bleach that is less damaging to your clothing.
To use color remover on your clothing, you will:
- Pre-wash your item. Make sure you use warm and soapy water.
- Use a stainless steel pot and fill it with water. Make sure that you use enough water that your item can move around freely but don’t add the item yet.
- Heat water to just below boiling, which should be about 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Add your color remover and mix it well in the water.
- Wet your object and add it to your simmering pot.
- Stir your item on occasion and keep an eye on the progress.
- Only keep your item in the mixture for between 10-20 minutes. When it is white or off-white, remove it.
- Rinse in warm water. Slowly cool your water and keep rinsing until the water runs clear.
- Wash in a normal machine cycle using warm water and mild detergent.
What Are the Ways That You Can Remove the Color from Nylon?
Similar to whitening your nylon objects, you can use most of the same methods to remove the color from your nylon.
One method that won’t work to remove colored dye from your nylon is the lemon juice option.
Using lemon juice is only to remove discoloration from your nylon and not dye.
What Color Does Yellow Turn When You Bleach it?
If you are bleaching out a yellow discoloration, you should get a white or slightly off-white color after bleaching.
If you are trying to bleach an item that is yellow due to a yellow dye, this result is not as guaranteed.
Depending on what fabric/dye combination you are working with, you will get different results.
Potential Results include:
- No change in color at all.
- A lighter version of the original color.
- Color changes to a completely different color.
- Color strips and leaves behind cream or off-white.
Often, even if bleach is used, you will not get a pure white color when you are trying to pull dye from the fabric.