Tips for At Home Fabric Dyeing

We've been experimenting with all sorts of home dyeing projects lately! Today I'm sharing how I dyed my bride's maid dress. Elsie choose to have all her bride's maids wear white (or off white) dresses of their choice for her wedding day last May. It was such a beautiful affair and although I really loved my white dress I got the itch to change it up—so I tried home dyeing it a deep lavender. I was emailing my friend, Missy, about home dyeing (specifically natural dyeing, which we will be sharing projects on soon) and a great piece of advice she gave me was to go into the project with no expectations. It's hard to predict how a home dyeing project will turn out the first time, but here's what I did and what I learned from it:1. Supplies: cotton (or other natural fabric) garment, Rit dye, salt, bucket and gloves. 2. Follow the directions on the package/bottle to mix your dye (Rit brand suggested I use hot water and add salt to the mix). 3. Dye your garment, consult your dye package for suggestions on how long to leave it in the dye bath. 4. Thoroughly rinse the garment until the water runs clear. Wash your garment (by hand or machine) before wearing it in case any dye remains.

I choose to wash my garment in my washing machine after I had thoroughly rinsed it after dyeing. I washed it with a load of dark towels but I threw one white sock in as I was curious if the dye would bleed onto other clothes. Here's what I got:As you can see, the sock on the left (the one I washed with the dress) did get dyed a very soft purple.Our Top 5 Tips for Home Dyeing projects:

-Prepare properly before you begin. You should wear gloves. You should wear old clothes and possibly an apron. It can only take a second for you to dye your skin, carpet or clothes so you need to plan out every step of the process before you begin.

-Keep your spirit of adventure! As you can see the thread in the upper bodice of my dress did not dye but remained white. Also the lace trim along the bust is a slightly different purple than the rest of the dress. These "imperfections" are what make home dyeing projects fun—but only if you don't go into the project with too high of expectations.

-Use cheap buckets or stainless steel to dye and rinse garments. You could also do the rinsing outdoors with a hose. Do not use your bathtub or porcelain sink as it will probably stain. My kitchen sink is stainless steal so it was ideal for this project but I was sure to remove all dishes before the project and I cleaned the sink after. You don't want to eat dye. Gross.

-Rinse the garment as thoroughly as you can; but the first time you wash it do so with other dark clothes or wash it by hand separately. As I learned from my sock test, even a thoroughly rinsed dyed garment will probably bleed the first time it's washed.

-Check your dye package for any allergy information. Most store bought dyes contain chemicals that you (or your loved ones) could be allergic to. In general they are perfectly safe, but it's best to double check before beginning a project.

Be safe, and above all have fun with home dyeing! xo emma

Comments

[v]

I love it in purple! Just adorable :)

[sarah jane]

fun! i always see those little rit boxes and get the itch! love the new purple dress. my daughter would LOVE to do this with socks. she has a thing for really bright socks!

[Tinacious.Me]

wow the purple dress looks great! what a fun project! I always forget to buy gloves though.
http://www.tinacious.me

[Natasha Fatah]

You did a great job!
The dress looks great!

xoxo
http://natashafatah.blogspot.com

[Helen]

Beautiful! I'll be trying this next weekend on my old shirt :)

[Sari]

Great tips! Gonna find myself some clothes to dye! Can't wait to add some nice colors to my wardrobe :)

Love the color you used. Looks great on you!
xo Sari

[Katherine of Kitten's Lost Her Mittens]

I love that color purple! Also, I think it looks really cool that the little lace bit at the top is a different shade. Thanks for all the tips; I can't wait to try this!
x Katherine

[My Lovely Sister]

adorable^^

[Tanja]

Omg I'm so trying this. I have a bridesmaids dress from last march that I can't part with but have been wishing it was in a different color. what a great idea! Thanks for this!!!

[Carolin]

a little dyeing tipp from me: if you have some old and verry washed jeans but you like to re-fresh them, simply just put them into the washing machine with a newly dyed piece. just as you did with the sock. the colour re-freshs and the jeans looks closely to new. it works really great. if you wish a more soft effect, wait 2-3 washes before you wash the old piece with the newly died one. you can also dye your stuff in the washing machine. works out just fine as if you d.i.y. plus it washes out all the left overs and you dont have to do the whole job. its a great time saver, too.

btw. emma, i really think your blue hair looked gorgeous on you, but so does the brunette/blond!

<3 carolin

[IRene]

love this! :)http://lovesimplegreen.blogspot.com/

[kuti]

waow its great tips.. its awesome.. thank you so much for the info..

kuti
http://ishootstyle.blogspot.com

[Allison]

Love it! The purple is beautiful! Great job Emma!
xx
http://www.thrifted.ca

[Courtney]

This is such a great idea! And a great way to revamp an old clothing item :)

http://thelittletexan.blogspot.com/

[Katha Strophe]

Such a great idea!
I love the purple - it's almost as if these are two completely different dresse :]

http://blog.kathastrophal.de

[Jess]

Lovely! I love the look of home dyed items.

[jess]

Question! How much salt do you add to the dye?

[call me debbie]

Αm I the only one who prefers the white one? :D

http://inwhirlofinspiration.blogspot.com

[Sarah]

I'm telling ya, you guys should try ProChem. It's amazing how much deeper and lovelier the colors are than RIT. This is awesome though. The purple is really pretty =)

- Sarah
agirlintransit.blogspot.com

[Val]

Fun!!
Very pretty

Val
http://valentinaduracinsky.blogspot.com/