Knitting a ranch house
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Lessons on dying

6/2/2014

2 Comments

 
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I love a good deal. When I see that sunglasses are on sale for $5 I buy four pairs. This is probably not a good thing and I've had to learn to stop and think about if I really need another 4 pairs of sunglasses (the answer is yes). My partner always reminds me that in Vancouver we pay for space, and even if something costs 5 cents we pay a lot more a month to store it. 
I bought this American Apparel dress in one of those moments. I think it was on sale for $10 and I had it in another colour already and wore it a lot. It was completely white though and because it's a dress I usually wear at the beach it got really nasty every time I wore it. 
A couple years ago ombre stuff was really in so based on a photo of some ombre dyed tights I saw online I decided to dip dye this dress so it would hide stains. I mixed some Dylon blue dye in a large pot and carefully clipped my dress to a hanger and then suspended half the dress in the pot for a while (maybe 30 minutes?) and then let it hang up outside without rinsing the dye to try and get a saturated effect on the bottom. This didn't really work. The colour is fairly consistent throughout. I then attempted to rinse the dress and in the process got dye on the top half of it making some light blotchy tie dye kind of situation. I became frustrated, let it dry and left it in the bottom of my laundry basket for 2 years. 
Since most of my clothes just don't fit right now, I became desperate. I washed this dress with a bit of vinegar to set the dye and threw it on. It's not the dress I hoped for but it works for biking to the beach and getting sandy and sweaty...so attractive. 
Some things I learned:
  • Timing and checking on clothes in dye is probably important
  • If you want an ombre effect, it is probably best to submerge the part to be dyed briefly and then hang it up so that it doesn't saturate
  • I should set the dyed parts of the garment before rinsing it to avoid dye on the white parts
  • Leaving something in the laundry basket for 2 years leaves intense wrinkles in a garment


2 Comments
Kerri
6/24/2014 07:08:16 am

Bwahahahaha! The next blog you write should be entitled "Life Lessons with Renee". It would more or less be the same blog, but in list pattern, and you know how much I love lists.

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Renée link
6/25/2014 12:32:04 am

The life lessons of this blog tend to stay in just the one area though.

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    A blog to document my attempts to create a well-fitting wardrobe for myself and my family through sewing and knitting.

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