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Saturday, May 22, 2010

Dye! Dye! Dye!

Let it be said: I'm not much of a pink person.  However, as indicated by a few items of mysteriously pink clothing lingering in storage, this may not have always been the case.  I unearthed three pieces that would be perfectly fine, cute even, if only they weren't so.....well, pink. (Pink lovers, don't abandon me now!  Pink certainly has its merits -- just not on me.)


Pink, meh.  But red -- hey!  I like red!  Pink and red are closely related -- dying from one color to the other should work, right?   Well yes, sort of.  It took three attempts to get the shade I was after.  Mexican Red -- not really so red.  Tulip red -- also, not particularly red.  Finally, crimson -- mostly, pretty much red.  I now know that I may have been using too much material with my first two laundry-sink attempts.  (Word to the wise, when they say to use rubber gloves, they mean it.   Also, probably best not to wear your favorite sweater when working with dye.  Not that I would know anything about that.)  I ended up spending a bit more money in this revamp than I anticipated, but once I got going I was determined to make these things wearable, darnit!

I'm happy with the final shade -- still a hint of pink, but a really rich, vibrant hue that certainly leans more toward red.  Definitely wearable.   Definitely deserving of a future outside the storage boxes.


I love how the dye hasn't stuck to any of the synthetic material -- in this case the stitching and embroidery.




Hooray, success!  Now I'm inspired to dole out a few more dye jobs -- what will emerge next from those deep, deep storage boxes? 

**This is the day of the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway....   I will let the random number generator work it's magic at 4pm NZ time.  Good luck to all of you!!**

5 comments:

えみこ said...

That is so COOL. You are so creative and full of interesting ideas! I love the RED.

Seedling said...

Thanks Emiko! I'm really eager to try this with some other clothing too -- so much better to reinvent what I've already got than to buy new...

Stella said...

These look great, I've never tried dying before, easy? Hard?

Seedling said...

Super easy -- as long as you're good at following directions (which I'm not always....) By the third time, I really got the hang of it though :) I finally had the best experience with a brand called i-dye, which you can do in your washing machine (as opposed to the sink or a bucket.) If you put your machine on a soak cycle, it does all of the agitating for you. It was a bit pricier (about $16.00 NZ) so I resisted it at first, but ultimately, I think it would have been the most efficient option. Also, it dyes far more material than the cheaper Dylon brand, so it results in a deeper, more accurate color (I kept getting variations on pink with the Dylon.) It was really fun, and gratifying. Now that I know what I'm doing, I'll definitely do more!

Stella said...

I think I'll have to try it!