Safari Dress: Bleached & Dyed!

Ta-da! The safari dress is bleached and dyed and dry!

I used RIT "Purple" liquid dye for 2 lbs. of fabric on this for one hour, and I'm really liking it. I'm liking it so much I'm going to dance around and use corn as maracas while wearing it!!


FINALE TIME!


Also, I wore my other two recently dyed projects over the weekend, here's a picture of me in the skirt before we go to the Farmer's Market:

What can I say - sometimes, I'm really excited about food!

Later this week!
- More Game of Thrones Jewelry (including Tyrion stuff)
- Bleaching/glue resist on fabric

Stay tuned!

Bleached & Dyed Skirt: Fin!

At least there's one project finished: I've bleached and dyed this skirt to my satisfaction!
(I'm so happy it didn't come out looking like camouflage)


To dye it, I combined Dylon dyes "Jungle Green" and "China Blue", figuring I'd get that sort of bright green with blue undertones that seems to be all over the place right now.

And, success! The skirt is 100% cotton, so I knew it would soak up a lot of the dye. I'm really happy with it, especially since it was a $3 thrifted skirt, it may now become one of my favorites!

Next up, I still have the safari dress, and I think I'm going to try Dylon's "Intense Violet" again, and double up on the dye.

I really like the color that the "China Blue" is supposed to come out as, and I want to find something to dye that color, but what?

Next week!
The end of the safari dress! - will it come out Violet? Or will it look like a hot mess?

Resist dyeing with glue!
I've bookmarked several tutorials, if you'd like to give it a go, I'd love to hear your feedback/advice:
Gel Glue Resist Tutorial
Glue Resist Batik
DIY Fabric Prints

I have some skirts that probably need octopuses on them!

Further Dyeing Adventures: RIT "Wine" Dye

The Dylon "Intense Violet" dye I used was for 1/2 lb of fabric, and also the dress has spandex and polyester mixed in, so I figured i should up the intensity if I wanted the next color to over-dye the purple/pink princess monster dress I'd created.

I went to JoAnns and got RIT's liquid dye in "Wine" for 2 lbs. of fabric. The color on the bottle was a lot less saturated than the colors came out (which is fine with me, I like saturation). And look! The lace completely soaked up the dye this time - I wonder why that is? I did add more salt to the dye, so maybe that helped.


I love how this shirt came out! I bought this shirt thinking that the brown and white stripes would just grow on me. They sure didn't. But the shape of the shirt and the interesting sleeves kept me from throwing it away. DYE TO THE RESCUE! Since this is 100% cotton it soaked up a lot of the RIT dye.

The dress and the t-shirt were dyed together in the sink for 30 minutes, and I really like how they both came out!
Now, to the next level: bleaching!

First Dye Job: Pink to Purple Dress

Well, the first dye job has been done, and I'm having mixed feelings about it. The dye was Dylon's "Intense Violet", and the material was actually a cotton/polyester/spandex blend, so I wasn't entirely sure how things were going to come out.

I'm going to have to see if this grows on me. Mixing colors scares me sometimes - It seems like it takes more fashion bravery than I'm equipped with. I'm thinking of over-dyeing it with another rosey type color.

Lessons learned this round:
- More dye means more intense - if I want it richer, use two packets
- You can dye things in an all white kitchen without ruining anything!

Let's see, what am I going to dye today? Probably a shirt (since all of the bleaching materials aren't here yet). Bleaching will have to be later this week!

The Week I Wanted to Dye

I have a small stack of thrifted clothes that I've been meaning to *do* something with. Mostly, I like the way they feel or fit, but I hate the color. So, this week, I'm going to experiment with dyeing and bleaching techniques.



This dress, for example, is from the thrift store and so comfy! It fits me really well. But, uhh, I've already did the safari thing in junior high and I don't think I should revisit the jungles, so to speak. Also, it has rhinestones on it in matching animal-print colors. Jeez.

So, there's going to be a lot of before and after pictures this week! I love those! I've got a skirt, a couple of shirts, another dress. The dress pictured I'm probably going to bleach (to tone down the print) and then dye it either green or purple. I'm using Martha Stewart's "Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts" as a guide, so hopefully it will turn out great!

Let's just see if I can also manage not to dye half the house as well. Now, I'm gonna go break out the plastic drop cloths!