how to keep your color run shirt stained or how to keep the color on your color run shirt

Yes, you read that right. 

I wanted to keep my color run shirt stained with color.

Why? 

Well, why not?!

It just adds that extra festiveness to a plain old white shirt, plus I wanted to remember all the color full fun we had. 

Our color run was a little bit different, in that it was raining while we were running. 

But, this should still help keep the stain in. 

All you need is vinegar. 

and newspaper

Take your color run shirt and douse it in vinegar. 

I filled a spray bottle with vinegar and just kept spraying my shirt until it was almost soaked. 

(you might want to do this outside, because vinegar has a very strong scent.)

While you are dousing the shirt the colors will run together, especially if you are holding the shirt up. 

I recommend laying the shirt on newspaper, on a flat surface and spraying the shirt while it is laying down flat. 

Spray one side of the shirt at a time so that you don’t get any of the newspaper coloring on it, and so that the shirt can get a chance to soak up the vinegar. 

I sprayed my shirt a few times, I’d say about three or four times throughout the period of 5 days. 

(I know that sounds so gross to leave a stinky dirty shirt outside for that long, but it wasn’t all that bad)

Once you are satisfied with how many times you have sprayed the shirt with vinegar you will want to wash the shirt. 

Turn your washing machine on cold and let it go through a light cycle, then dry the shirts in the dryer. 

You will want to wash the shirt again, with detergent this time, but don’t wash them right after they have come out of the washer, wait a day or two. 

(You can always repeat the process and spray more vinegar on it) 

When you wash your shirt wash it inside out so that if color does come off it just goes onto the other side of the shirt. 

Each time you wash your shirt you’ll want to use caution not to wash the color out. It will take several washes to have the color stain so keep turning your shirt inside out and using minimal detergent. 

It does seem like a long process, but for me it was worth it to keep my shirt fun and colorful! 

I cannot guarantee that this process will work for you, I can only tell you that this process worked for me.  Not all the color stays, but a pretty good amount of it did. 

Happy Color Running! 

For tips on what to do to prepare for the color run go here.