So I bought this dress when I was 18 at a little thrift store on the Outer Banks.
I bought it because it fit like a glove and the cut was (still is) really flattering. And it was $4 (this is a perfect post for Secondhand September, no?). I was less than thrilled with the print (it's dated, and too Laura Ashley), but I had visions of finding a tailor who could take the dress apart and use it as a pattern to make a version of it in navy or black.
Now, 7 years later, the dress still fits like a glove and I still love the cut, but the tailor hasn't materialized. My sister Libby mentioned that she was eager to try her hand at dyeing something, so she suggested we grab a bottle of Rit and go to town. I wasn't planning on wearing the dress as is, so why not experiment?
After reading how-to instructions online, along with several warnings about how dyeing clothing is MESSY and PERMANENT and HORRIFYING we set up camp in my mom's laundry room, promising to bleach the heck out of anything we splattered. Spoiler alert: If you use common sense, dyeing is easy-peasey and not as messy as the doomsday prophets at Rit would like you to think. So I don't have any shocking "OMG THE CARPET IS RUINED" stories or pictures.
Here we are, about halfway through the process:
That thing that looks like sludge is the dress. We used 1 bottle of black liquid Rit dye, 1 cup of salt, and 5 gallons of water (along with an old bucket, and my wooden spoon who offered up its life in the name of fashion and discovery). We stirred and stewed the dress around in the salty black water for 30 minutes, to make sure the dye took and was evenly distributed. As you can see, it was looking really dark and really promising.
After rinsing it till the water ran clear and then running it through the washer, here's what it looked like:
Yeah, pretty disappointing. It might look okay(ish) from far far away, but up close... it just looked muddy and drab. It sort of reminds me of something Little Orphan Annie might be forced to wear. My mom suggested that if we'd used a navy blue dye, it might have complemented the slightly visible blue pattern more than the black did. Of course, I had hoped that the pattern wouldn't show through at all, but I thought her point was valid.
Have any of you tried dyeing clothes before? Any ideas on what went wrong (maybe we didn't let it sit in the dye long enough, or rinse it in cold water long enough so the dye stuck)? Should we try dyeing it with another round of black dye?
Maybe I should find a tailor after all. If you have mad sewing skills and want to make a dress for me, let me know.
I've done dying with Rit before, and it takes a lot of work and patience. You CAN do it in the washing machine, and that's almost better than the pot method. Try a small load cycle, and the hottest water you can, and set it to do an extra, COLD, rinse at the end. The cold water sets the dye better and keeps it from running out. But in reality, you have to do 2-3 "coats" of dye to get a dark color.
ReplyDeleteRit is just a cheap dye, and I'd recommend trying dyes available for hand-dying yarn skeins--it's going to be a lot more vibrant. (like this: http://www.knitpicks.com/cfaccessories/accessory_list.cfm?ID=300508&media=PPCgsTool&gclid=CJ3QhuGSq7ICFUGo4AodsAsAGg&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=PPCgsTool&utm_content=GOOGLE%20(Search)%20Knitting%20Supply&utm_source=www.google.com)
Good luck!
This is so helpful! Maybe we don't have to give up hope just yet... Thank you!
DeleteMy (very limited) experience with Rit is exactly what you describe. I agree with the previous comment about the washing machine, if you can convince your mom to let you use it. It'll clean up nicely, and if your mom's washing machine looks like my mom's when I started, it'll look even better after you clean it. In any case, it can't hurt to try another coat, right?
ReplyDeleteTrue! Maybe if I bring brownies or something she'll let me use the washer :D
DeleteI took a fibers class moons ago in college. I think there's something about some fabrics are sealed or have some barrier to dye. Which is why they wash any new fabric before you dye it.
ReplyDeleteOh got it... Hm. I wonder if there's something like that on this dress (I haven't washed it or worn it)... maybe now that it's washed, it would dye again.
DeleteWhat type of fabric is it you're trying to dye? It's pretty hard to get any type of synthetic to take a really dark color. There are certain kinds of dyes that work a little better than others. I like to buy my dyes from dharmatrading.com and they have great instructions as to what works on what fabrics. However, specialty dyes can be more complicated and sometimes require other fixatives so if you go that route make sure you check that as well. Also, it's almost impossible to get a true black out of Rit dye. You may be able to get it a little darker with more rounds, but my recommendation is you might try a different dye.
ReplyDeleteHi Lali!! It's cotton, with a polyester lining (I'm not worried about the lining getting dyed, just the cotton outer shell :D). THANK you for the different dye suggestion -- that's exactly what I needed to hear. I will give up on Rit for this project.
DeleteI do a lot of dying and I stay away from is dying anything black because it will almost always turn whatever color the black is based on (purple, brown, etc) as you found out...I think to dye anything black you'd have to have it super super concentrated. One thing I've learned using Rit is that the bottles are not concentrated. The powdered packets are and that way you can control how saturated the color is so I prefer those but I'd recommend to dye colors, not black in the future.
ReplyDeleteThat's super helpful, Melissa! This is the kind of stuff I need to learn :D
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