A while back I found the cutest white dress for my daughter. It was $12 and passed the ‘twirl’ test my daughter insists her dresses pass.
My daughter is almost 5, and although I would not call her a messy child she is young and not immune to spilling food on herself. I had a feeling this dress wasn’t going to stay white long but I took a chance anyway. Well, guess what?? A couple of wearings later and it’s full of food stains.
Now I wouldn’t be a very good crafter/upcycler/artist if I threw the dress away, so I thought we could dye it to hide the stains. I remember dying a pair of converse shoes in my teens yellow. Boy, those shoes were cool, but I digress….
The next time I was at the fabric store with the kids ( have you ever shopped in a fabric store with kids?? Is it a nightmare for you as well??) I remembered to buy some fabric dye, but what!!!?? Almost $8.00 for a bottle of dye? I was sure I had seem some dye at the dollar store. Turns out I was right,they had a great selection of brown, forest green and purple, so of course we picked purple for only $1.oo.
Here is how I dyed the dress, but this being my 1st time I would not consider myself an expert by any means.
First we wet the dress in cool water, this helps the fabric absorb the dye more evenly
Add the dress to HOT water that you have dissolved the dye in. Here I have the water from my kettle and the dye in a tub that is also in a sink full of hot water. The instructions said to keep the water hot, so this was how I managed that.
I was going for an ombre look, and didn’t add the top of the dress to the dye, I wanted that part to stay white.
Until the white part fell in as well….
At this point my daughter ran into her room and grabbed a pair of white panties and white socks. Smart kid! We threw those into the dye bath as well.
After the dress sat in the dye for 25 minutes as per package instructions it was time to rinse, and rinse, and rinse….
After the water came clear during rinsing, I hung the dress up to dry outside as it was a hot and sunny day.
Now my daughter is very happy, and loves to wear her purple outfit any time she can. It’s not perfect , and it’s uneven but I really like it that way!! The color also ended up being MUCH lighter than I thought it was going to be, so if you are dyeing anything make sure it appears a whole heck of a lot darker in the dye bath than you want the finished project to be.
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