Faded T-shirt—can it still be saved?

Hi there, fellow creative folks :-)

I’ll get right to the point: I bought a printed T-shirt as a Father’s Day gift and threw it straight into the wash.
Wrong sides together, 30° hand wash...
It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I saw the note saying you’re supposed to wait 5 days before washing the shirts.
I thought to myself: Oh well, what’s done is done—the damage is already done (or rather, the T-shirt’s already in the machine, hehe)—it’ll be fine.

Yeah—this is what it looks like now! 


This is the back, and I could just cry :P The front looks similar, but not quite as bad.

The print on the front is still perfect!
The smaller T-shirt (I ordered the same one in a kids’ size) is still in great shape!

Can this still be salvaged? Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

(P.S.: What can we learn from this? Store-bought gifts are no good! I’ll make them myself again in the future! :D)

Why wait five days?

Yeah, exactly—5 days from when? The manufacturer has no idea when the shirt will be sold.
Just claim it’s tie-dye and that’s how it’s supposed to look..... :-)

It was custom-printed :-)
I’m guessing that’s meant as a safety measure so the print doesn’t get damaged.

I actually threw it back in the washing machine out of sheer desperation, on a quick cycle, and after the second time it already looked less bad.
Now it’s in there for the 3rd round, haha.

I suspect something else in there bled onto it... The print itself was still completely intact, after all.
I can’t really explain the whole thing, but oh well. Maybe after the 3rd wash cycle it’ll be back to how it’s supposed to be. 

Can you post another picture after washing it?

Can’t you return it?
I’d give it a try. If something bleeds like that after washing, that’s not okay.
Best regards, Marita

Yeah, exactly—I’d file a complaint too. It shouldn’t look like that after being washed.

It looks completely normal again after two more washes :)
I’ll take a photo when it’s not being worn.

I probably couldn’t even file a complaint because I didn’t follow the instructions. And I did have other items in the washing machine with it. Maybe the color came from something else.

But since it looks fine again right now, I’ll just wait and see what happens.

Well, you sure got lucky there, Tina. Great that it turned out okay after all.

Hey there.....
Well, I only know about waiting before washing it in the sense that it helps the print bond better to the T-shirt. Depending on the print, you can also iron it from the back to make the whole thing more “durable.”
To me, the shirt bleeding has nothing to do with the print, but with the quality of the T-shirt.... That would have happened even if you’d waited two weeks before washing it....
Really annoying.
I don’t think it can be salvaged. File a complaint, or before you throw it in the trash, dye it again in the washing machine, though I don’t know how the print will react to that....

Just read this... Good thing it washed out...