Dye! Dye! Dye! (Part 2)

What can I say?  I'm hooked on dyeing.  Spend $15.00 to transform a bunch of sad, stained, but generally sturdy garments into beautifully renewed and beautifully hued new wearables?  Heck, yes!  Take the above -- grimy white booties, a lovely but see-through skirt, a splotched top...add a few items that were sadly stained by an errant red dishcloth....All are things that it seems silly to get rid of, but probably wouldn't even be accepted by Goodwill in their current state.  Dye to the rescue!  I went with the pricier i-Dye from the get-go this time, having learned my lesson about cheaper dyes during my earlier forays.

Olive green is one of my favorite colors; even though I really loaded the machine up with clothing, the end result was a wonderful, deep green.  The darker color was a good choice for covering up more persistent stains.
 

Such an easy, satisfying project.  With the i-Dye, the washing machine does all of the work for you --   pulling your clothing out at the end is a bit like Christmas.   It always feels good to find a way to continue to use something rather than discard it at the first sign of trouble.  Me: 1, household stains and red dishcloths: 0.

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!!**