Pinterest Tested: Bleach, Then Dye Jeans

Welcome to Pinterest Tested! Ever wonder if that miracle cleaner is really miraculous? Or what about that homemade facial cleanser or delicious-looking recipe? The Craft Patch is the place to find out! I am testing Pins that catch my eye to see if they really live up to the claims made on Pinterest. It's like the Mythbusters of Domesticity! 

I have been wanting to test today's Pin since the day I saw it on Pinterest. I am finally done and can't wait to share my results. The Pin I'm testing can be found HERE. 

The Pin says that you can bleach a pair of jeans, then use RIT dye to make them any color you want!

THE TEST: Will it work to bleach a pair of jeans, then dye them?

Here's the pair of jeans I started with:

I have owned this pair of jeans for several years, but recently they started smelling funny. I don't know why. I have tried Febreeze, heavy duty laundry soap, vinegar and baking soda, and everything else I can think of and nothing would rid them of their  weird smell. I was just about to throw them away when I saw this Pin. I figured soaking them in bleach would definitely kill any smell. So I gave it a go. 

Step 1: Soak pants in bleach. 

Here was the first surprise of this test. What color do you think the water would turn if you put dark blue jeans into bleach? Blue, right?

Wrong! I bet you didn't guess brown. Weird, huh? Now for the second guess: how long do you think you would have to soak pants in bleach to get them white? A few hours? A day? I had to soak them for FIVE DAYS to get them all the way bleached! Five days!

After researching it a little more, I guess some jeans bleach easier than others. Why these pants were so stubborn, I have no idea (especially since I have ruined nice jeans by a mere accidental splash of bleach in the past). But after five days of bleaching, here's what they looked like:

 Not really white, but a yellowish grey. I put a pair of my daughter's white jeans next to them for comparison.

This is about the time when I realized that all that time in the bleach had eaten away at my pants a little. The bottom hem was starting to die a slow death. And there was a spot that wouldn't go white. Strange. Honestly, I'm surprised that the pants didn't totally disintegrate with all that time in the bleach.

*** See my update below.

But I forged ahead and used Teal RIT dye:

Because my pants were a little bit yellowish, they turned out to be a nice minty color, just like I was hoping. My daughter's white jeans turned out a little bit more aqua. Also very cute.

Here's the weirdest thing about this whole experiment... when my jeans were finally washed and dried, I put them on and they didn't even feel like the same pants. The denim was a totally different texture and the pants were SO stretched out! They were wider and longer! Isn't that just the weirdest thing?

I was planning to sew them up the sides to make them skinny jeans anyways, so I just sewed up higher to help them fit tighter. It works.

The total cost for my new jeans was around $5...I used one box of dye and 1 1/2 bottles of bleach. Not bad!

My pants did not dye very evenly. There are a few white spots and imperfections, but I'm okay with that. I saved a pair of jeans that I would have probably just thrown away. And I love how they turned out, even if they are not perfect. I'm feeling very trendy in my new minty jeans.

THE RESULT: It worked...mostly. It would have been so much easier to find a pair of white jeans at a thrift store and skip the whole bleaching step. But I ended up with a cheerful (but not perfect) pair of pants that I will have fun wearing.

UPDATE: Yesterday while wearing these jeans, I bent over to pick something up off the ground and *RIP* went the knee. All that time in the bleach really took a toll on these pants. They are too thin and falling apart! Now that I know that, I can't recommend bleaching, then dying jeans. Instead, I would buy plain white jeans and dye them to the color you want. It would be so much faster, easier and they wouldn't disintegrate on you either.

Well, they were fun while they lasted.

A Cheaper Way To Make Freezer Jam

My sweet brother-in-law stayed with us for a few days this past week. One day, he came home with a flat of strawberries he had bought at a fruit stand on the side of the road. I knew immediately that I wanted to make freezer jam. Nothing beats the fresh taste of homemade freezer jam. And it's really easy to make.

In the past, I have always followed the recipe on the side of the pectin box. But dang, that stuff is kind of pricey, especially if you have a LOT of strawberries! The traditional recipe calls for one box of pectin for every two cups of strawberries. With as many berries as I had, that meant I would have to buy five boxes of pectin, which would cost about $10. What if I told you there's a way to make freezer jam without buying pectin? And the total cost for 10 cups of strawberries would only be $2? And it's something you might already have on hand?

Here's the secret ingredient:

Good old Jell-O!

Yup. At 50 cents a box, Jell-O is much cheaper than pectin! Thanks to my awesome aunt, who loves saving money as much as I do, for introducing this recipe to me. So, do you want to learn how to make it?

Jello-O Freezer Jam

10 cups strawberries, washed and crushed

2 cups sugar

2 large (6 oz) or 4 small (3 oz) boxes strawberry Jell-O

Using a potato masher was the easiest way to crush the berries!

In your largest pot, combine strawberries and sugar. Let stand for 1 hour. Heat to boiling, then simmer for 15 minutes. 

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Wipe down the sides of the pan so no sugar granules remain or the jam will have a grainy texture later.

Stir in the Jell-O. Fill clean containers with jam. I used old canning jars even though I didn't can the jam. They were the containers I had, but you could use plastic containers also. Freeze the jam. Thaw in fridge before serving on toast, waffles, sandwiches or even ice cream.

The hillbilly jar filler: a plastic cup with a hole in the bottom!

I got six and a half pints from this recipe, which is perfect....the half-filled jar is for eating right now.

One really cool thing about making this kind of jam is that you can change the flavor of the jam by using different flavors of gelatin. How about strawberry lemonade jam or strawberry/raspberry jam? So many different combinations are possible! This time I went with two boxes of strawberry and two boxes of raspberry and the jam is to die for. In fact, I'm going to go make me some toast right this minute! Enjoy!

Barbecue Chicken Dinner Salad

It's that time of summer when my desire to cook goes completely out the window. It's just too hot! Standing in front of the stove or turning on the oven sound like torture. And a hot meal is the last thing I want to eat! So I thought I'd share one of my favorite summer time dinners. It's easy to throw together and always sounds good to me on sweltering days.

Barbecue Chicken Dinner Salad

2 chicken breasts, pre-cooked and cut into pieces or shredded

1 can black beans, drained

Barbeque sauce

Lettuce

Vegetables (carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, peas, or anything else you like)

Grated cheese

Ranch dressing

The first thing you need to know about this recipe is that presentation is everything. I lay out four plates (one for each member of my family) and make each salad individually so that they will be pretty. You eat with your eyes first, remember. 

1.  Lay a bed of lettuce on each plate. Any kind of lettuce will do. I used iceberg because my husband doesn't like good lettuce. haha.

2. Add vegetables... whatever you like, have or want.

3. Make up a batch of the barbecue topping: Mix together the chicken, drained black beans and enough barbecue sauce to wet everything down. Warm in the microwave, about two minutes. Spoon it neatly into the center of each salad.

4. Sprinkle each salad with grated cheese and serve with Ranch dressing.

On a related note: check out my post on how I pre-cook all my chicken to save time in the kitchen.

Pinterest Tested: Single Serve Microwave Cookie

I am happy to welcome a guest poster for today's Pinterest Tested. He's cute, he loves to help, and he knows a lot about cookies. Introducing G:

The PIN up for testing is HERE.

THE TEST: A single serve microwave chocolate chip cookie recipe. I love the idea of making one cookie at a time so I'm not tempted to eat the whole batch in one night. And a bonus is that even when it's hot outside, you can cook these without heating up your house.

The recipe can be found HERE.

G-Man, take it away!

Step 1: Stir ingredients together.



Blob it on a plate.



Cook in the microwave.



Now let's test our creation.



"Ack-shoo-lee, it's like a pancake."



Thanks for all your help, G!

His analysis was right on. I would not call the finished product a cookie at all. It turned out to be spongey, a little rubbery and not at all like a chocolate chip cookie. I had high hopes for this test, but alas, not ever Pin-Test can be a winner. It didn't taste horrible (but it was fat, sugar and chocolate...how bad could it taste?!) But this weird textured hybrid creation cannot pass as a cookie.

I even tried a second time to make sure and added a dash of cocoa just for a change.

Here's a close-up to show the texture a little more:

THE RESULTS: Nope. This just can't pass as a cookie in my book.

Oh, well. You can't win them all!

Pinterest Tested: Peel-Off Nail Polish Designs

Welcome to Pinterest Tested! Ever wonder if that miracle cleaner is really miraculous? Or what about that homemade facial cleanser or delicious-looking recipe? The Craft Patch is the place to find out! I am testing Pins that catch my eye to see if they really live up to the claims made on Pinterest. It's like the Mythbusters of Domesticity!

This week I am testing THIS PIN:

This Pin claims that you:

1.Use nail polish to paint little designs onto a Ziploc bag.

2. Wait until the paint is dry, then peel the designs off.

3. Adhere them to your nails using clear nail polish.

THE TEST: Does it work? How hard is it? How well do the designs stay on your nails?

To tell you the truth, I am skeptical of this one for some reason. You can just peel the designs off? I don't know. It just sounds too good to be true. But you know I have to test it...these unbelievable ones are the most tempting ones to test!

So here we go:

Step 1: Paint designs onto a Ziploc bag using your favorite nail polish. I decided to start with something simple...little flowers. Make sure they are small enough to fit on your nails. At first I thought I would put one flower on each fingernail, then after I had painted the flowers, I remembered that I hate having my fingernails painted.

Step 2: Peel off the designs. You can see here that some of them didn't come off very well. That's okay, though, because I changed my mind about putting them on my fingers anyways, remember? Just be really gentle and go slow.

These are the ones I was able to salvage:

Step 3: Use clear nail polish to stick them to your nails. I put them on my big toes. Nice and summery!

 THE RESULTS: Success! It worked! It actually worked! I am surprised and happy! It was easier and didn't take any more time than trying to paint designs straight on my toes. I can't wait to try this again!