Est. 2010
How to Dye & Refashion a Lace Dress
When I saw this lace dress hanging on the $1 rack at the thrift store, I just knew it would be a perfect dye project!
Yes, it’s a little too big for me and I’m not a fan of the length.
But that lace is so pretty! And the collar and pleats are just swoon-worthy!
Before I did anything else, I removed those three functionless buttons from the front.
Luckily, dyeing a lace dress is easy. Here’s how:
First, assess the label & your dye.
This dress is actually a two-piecer. There’s an outer layer made of nylon and an inner slip made of polyester.
Sidebar: I always ignore the “Dry Clean Only” on labels. 99% of the time it’ll be fine as long as you wash it in cold water. It only cost me $1. I can risk the loss. 😉
The good news is, Nylon takes to dye pretty well.
The bad news is, Polyester does not (unless you buy a dye specifically made for polyester).
From my own experience, I knew the polyester slip would take on at least a little bit of the dye, so I decided to include it in the dye bath with the outer layer.
You can see right on the box where it says this dye is recommended for Nylon.
Next, Prepare your dye bath.
I used my handy stock pot (which I only use for dyeing stuff since dye is toxic when ingested), and only added about half of the dye packet (because I’m cheap).
I added about a cup of salt to the dye bath (as recommended on the box) as well.
You don’t need boiling water here, folks. I just added the hottest water I could get from the tap.
After stirring/dissolving my dye/salt mixture, I was ready to…
Add the lace dress to the dye bath!
I put the lace dress and inner slip into the bath and fully submerged them by pushing them down with a spoon.
I left my dress in the dye bath for 40 minutes, stirring it every few minutes or so. The instructions on the dye packet say to stir it constantly, but in my experience this isn’t necessary.
When the 40 minutes was up, I dumped out the dye in my sink and then dumped the dress into my washing machine and rinsed it using the hand wash cycle.
So now the dyeing part of this refashion is complete!
After drying my dress, I tackled those sides.
I decided I wanted this dress to have a loose & flowy fit, so I only took it in an inch on each side.
First, I took in the slip.
Now for the lace dress!
Pinning the lace part ended up being a bit of a pain as a few pins kept falling out. :/
Much to my relief, stitching up the sides of the lace dress wasn’t any different from stitching the sides of any other fabric.
After cutting off the excess fabric, I tried the dress on again and marked where I wanted my new hem to be with a safety pin.
The reason I didn’t do this step first is that taking the dress in also affects the length, and I would have risked making my dress way too short!
A quick hem followed!
After pressing my new dress, my Refashion was complete!
IS THIS NOT THE CUTEST?!?
I’m sooooo bummed I can’t go out and about right now. :/ It really feels like I’m creating in a vacuum at the moment, but I’m SO happy & honored to get to share my refashions with you!
As I hung my new dress up in my closet, I gave a wistful sigh. “Someday, you’ll get to go to brunch, little friend,” I whispered.
I hope you are all staying safe and well at home, friends.
A few of you have been asking if I have any mask tutorials, and I do! You can check out my no sew tutorial here, and my sewn version here.
Cheers!
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