I found an an old pretzel bucket with the lid in my pantry.

Using a sharp knife I cut an X into the hard plastic lid.

 

Next I carefully pulled the top portion of the dress through the lid.

I knew that I wanted to dye just the top of this dress.

Dye side down

I prepared a dye bath using very concentrated liquid dye and hot water.

Left over dye

I combined 1/2 a bottle of liquid dye with about 8 cups of very hot tap water and 1/4 cup salt.

Dye Bath

There was no rhyme or reason for my measurements.  I just wanted to make sure that the dye was very dark and concentrated.

Put the lid on the jar

Wet the portion of the fabric that will be in contact with the dye, then screw the lid in place.  I put the jar in a warm place and allowed the fabric to soak overnight.

Soak over night

The next morning the fabric was very dark and seemed to have pink streaks.

Ready to hang dry

I REALLY liked the pink streaks but I wasn't sure they would stay that color (they didn't).

Hang dry

I hung the dress upside down out on the deck to dry.  I wanted to make sure that none of the purple dye came in contact with the white part of the dress.

Still drying

When the majority of the dye was done dripping from the dress, I removed the lid and allowed the dress to continue to dry.

Washing soda - NOT BAKING soda

Once the dress was dry, I soaked the dyed portion in a bucket of water and Washing Soda.  This is NOT the same as baking soda.  Washing soda is in the laundry aisle.  I didn't really measure.  I would guess that I used 1/2 a bucket of hot water and a cup of washing soda.  ONLY SOAK THE DYED PORTION of the dress.  The dress soaked for about 45 minutes.  (I was watching Law and Order and lost track of time).

Dip Dyed!

Finally I washed and dried the dress as usual.

The body of the dress ended up being pale lavender.  Each time I wash the dress the  undyed portion of the dress gets lighter and lights.  The dyed portion of the dress remains very dark.  SUCCESS!!

For more Rit Dye Adventures and refashion ideas, click HERE!