ReFashion: Rit Dyeing for a Pink Dress
9:10 PM
This is NOT a sponsored post. If the Rit people want to give me free dye, i'm happy to accept it!!
This dress comes with a bit of backstory. It's actually a double ReFashion. Before this dress was a dress the skirt was a white bed sheet from Goodwill. The bodice was a white duvet from Goodwill. I used the sheet to make a circle skirt (tutorial here). I sewed the circle skirt to a simple tube top that I made from an old white duvet.
Before I made this dress I knew the color that I wanted it to be. I wasn't entirely sure how I would create a deep dark pink, so I pretty much made up this process as I went along. Turns out, 1 bottle of liquid fuchsia and 1/2 a box of scarlet did the trick!!
I combined 1/2 the package of scarlet dye powder with very hot tap water. Once the powder was fully dissolved, I added the bottle of fuchsia.
I pinned several strips of the fabric used to make the dress together. These strips would be dyed with the dress. I set my washed to small load, hot wash and let if fill. I added 1 cup of salt to the washer (this is supposed to help the dyeing process) then I added the dress. Once the dress was thoroughly soaked, I (nervously) added the dye to the washer.
Once the dye was added I let the washer run for about 5 minutes. That allowed the dye to thoroughly mix with the water and soak the dress. Once the dress was soaked with dye, I opened the washer to make it stop.
To make sure that the dress was evenly dyed, I fully submerged it in the water. I used a long pole to gently press the dress under the water until the fabric was no longer visible at the surface of the water.
I allowed the dress to soak in the dye for about 2 hours. After 2 hours, I fished the test strips out of the washer, removed one of the pieces of fabric and returned the remaining 4 strips (pinned together) to the washer.
All things considered, I think this dress turned out GREAT! I'm wearing it to a pretty in pink brunch next week. Nobody will ever know that it used to be a white bedsheet!!!
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Color Transformation |
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Formula for Deep Pink |
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1/2 pack of scarlet powder + hot water |
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Test Strips |
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Adding Dye to the washer |
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Dress and dye in washer |
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Dress Fully Submerged |
When I removed the test strips I made sure that the dress was fully resubmerged in the dye.
Wash and rinse the test strip in the stink.
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Wash the test strip |
Dry the test strip! Wet fabric is darker than dry fabric, so the strip needs to be dry to get a true sense of the color.
The test strip look very dark to me, but I decided to wait a few hours and compare it to the next strip. I allowed the dress to soak for another 2 hours and then I removed another strip. I numbered each dry strip so that I could compare them.
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Dry the test strip |
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Test Strips |
Test strip #2, seemed much darker to me and that made me happy. After another few hours I pulled out test strip #3. It was basically the same color as test strip 2. That lead me to believe that the dress would not get any darker. I closed the washer and allowed the wash cycle to continue.
I allowed the washer to spin the dye out of the dress, but I removed the dress from the washer before the final rinse. I wanted to make sure that the dress stayed as dark as possible so I skipped the final rinse cycle.
To clean the washer, I ran it through a regular wash cycle with a little detergent and bleach (no clothes inside).
I hung the dress to dry and didn't wash rinse it for 2 weeks. Before I rinsed the dress, I pressed it and wore it for a family photo shoot.
This is just a photo proof. I'll post a better shot when the photos arrive.
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Freshly Dyed |
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My husband and I (Photo Credit: Janet Joyner Photography) |
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Deep Pink Perfection! |
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1 comments
Love the photo of you in your lovely pink dress with your family! Thanks for the post!
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