After my successful shoe refresh, I thought I’d give fabric dye a shot as Project 6. Since my wardrobe had spilled its bounty all over the guest bed as part of spring cleaning efforts, I picked out 2 well-worn denim skirts to act as my guinea pigs, and a packet of Dylon powdered Indigo Blue.
The before pictures are a little washed out, but the difference was quite marked.
- Skirts – Before
- Skirts – After
The instructions on the packet were pretty straightforward, all you really need is something to dye, 250g of salt, rubber gloves and a stirring stick ( I used an old paintbrush).
It felt a bit of a shame not to use the rest of the dye bath, since it doesn’t really lose its pigment after dyeing a few garments, so I looked around the flat with a hawkish eye, and came up with 2 bathmats. They were quite a faded gray, and are now a more pleasing blue:
- Bathmat – before
- Bathmat – after
I washed all the items in the sink a few times before popping them on a quick wash in the washing machine. I must admit I’m not sure how colourfast they are (don’t think I should be sitting on any white leather sofas yet..) so I may do another salt bath. The whole dyeing and rinsing process does seem to use quite a lot of water so I’m a bit wary of repeating the experiment. I’ve since rinsed out the washing machine with the added protection of baking soda and run a dark wash so I think laundry is safe, but must confess to some curiosity about placing dye directly into the machine – wouldn’t that be a recipe for pink socks/uniformly gray shirts??
This past weekend also involved another mammoth painting session (post to come) and I felt I was justified in making Project 7 a sewing medley of removing belt loops from a dress; taking a pair of pajama trousers in for Husband John, and taking in the lining to “de-poof” a dress. More smoothies were made and dinners cooked so it was a pretty good week!