Now let me preface this with a few things -- first of all, against better judgement I did not take any before shots of these dresses. I know. There is just something about a before shot that says "JINX!" to me. I'll try harder next time to get over it. Also, as I mentioned in Tuesday's post, I used the tips provided by Suze of Miss Vinyl Ahoy to get started. Her step by step isn't really too different from what is printed on the bottle of liquid dye but she has pictures which is always nice. My last disclaimer is that I totally got excited and forgot to wet these two dresses before putting them in the dye! Oops. This could be why I got lighter colors so, uh, don't skip that step!
I have had these two Old Navy dresses for about two and a half years. The first was a white eyelet dress that didn't get much wear because hello, it's white and the effect was more pillow case than cute. Ever since my attempt at turning my purple maxi into a navy maxi I have been wanting to successfully use the color. I knew that this 100% cotton dress would take the dye with no problems so I used one bottle of dye and the lowest water level on my washer.
This was the effect after one bottle of liquid RIT dye in Navy Blue. I used the washing machine directions on the bottle, super simple. I am kind of wishing I had used two bottles of dye for a more true navy rather than this dusty blue.
Secondly, I tossed in this dress that was formerly a light heather gray. I adore the cut of this dress but always felt like the casual color of the fabric made it look weird. Again, I realize a before shot could have been crucial here. Since this dress is 70% polyester, I knew that it would not soak up the dye like the cotton dress and so I bought two bottles of Apple Green so I could double the amount of dye. Into the washer with HOT water on the lowest setting with an extra rinse cycle.
As you can see, even with doubled up dye the color didn't saturate the synthetic material very well. You can see in the detail shot that the heathering is still obvious. Not 100% sure I am happy with this color but I was feeling indecisive in the dye aisle. I think I may wear this once and then attempt a re-dye towards more of a teal. Anything is more interesting than what it was.
Since I knew I wasn't going to get an accurate representation of the true Apple Green color, I decided to throw in one of Griffin's cut off onesies (why yes, I did chop the bottom of a onesie so he could wear it longer as an undershirt, is that totally tacky of me? Wait, don't answer that) so you can see how that turned out.
So there you have it, my experience with dying things! I am kind of obsessed with it now. I have grand plans for many more items like some of our old bed sheets, some plain Hanes t shirts for Michael to kick around in this summer, and another unloved white skirt from my closet. I bought my dye at JoAnn fabrics for about $4 per bottle. The powder dye is $3 per box but it seemed like it may be messier so we splurged for the liquid.
Any questions or your own dying tips? Spill it in the comment section!
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