refashionista from neon yellow to green and mellow
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From Neon Yellow to Green & Mellow

October 9, 2020 / 84 Comments
'80s Maternity Dress Refashion
My Second Chemotherapy Treatment

I originally discovered this comfy womfy fleece sweatshirt the week before it moved to the $1 clearance rack.

from neon yellow to green and mellow before
So cozy! But yikes! So bright!

I can’t begin to describe how commmmfy and sofffffft the fabric on this one is you guys! I thought it would be perfect for the days following my next chemo treatment when I’d want nothing but soft fabrics and feel-good tv shows.

Then, I looked at the tag and realized it was only 50% off, not $1. 🙁

It was only $3. Why am I like this?
It was only $3. Why am I like this???

You guys, I can afford to spend $3 on a shirt. What is my problem????

Anywho, I put it back on the rack, along with my hopes of enveloping myself in its cozy warmth.

Much to my surprise, I saw it again the following week. This time it was marked down to $1! Huzzah! Victory was mine!

refashionista cuddled in sweatshirt
It’s just you and me, comfy shirt!

The one thing I couldn’t get over about this shirt was how freakishly BRIGHT it was.

As I have no current plans to pivot to a career in roadside construction, I needed to calm that safety yellow hue down.

For some reason, I thought it would be fun to incorporate this vintage Aigner oxford shirt I found for a $1 into this Refashion as well!

vintage aigner shirt
Why not?
close up of Aigner label
Nice, eh?

This shirt was sadly really pitted out and had lots of stains all over it.

close up of stain
Ew.

I really only bought this shirt to repurpose the pocket, which I promptly used my seam ripper to remove.

removing pocket from front of shirt
I just love that logo!

Let’s dye it!

As I said before, I wanted to mellow that yellow, so I reached for these:

green and black rit dye
Two Rits, both alike in dignity…

Unfortunately, I’d used the green boxed dye in a previous Refashion, so I didn’t have much leftover.

less than half a packet of rit dye
That’s it, folks!

I was optimistic that mixing what I had left of the green with a bit of black would still get my shirt to green!

The label, however, didn’t do much to fuel this optimism.

polyester/spandex blend label
Oh noes!

Neither polyester nor spandex is very dye-able, but I decided to give it go anyways. Check out my post on why some fabrics dye better than others if you’d like a refresher.

With my fingers firmly crossed, I put my shirt and my pocket into their dye bath.

I only needed a bit of the dye to take…but would it?

dye bath
It’s taking a littttle of the dye…but will it be enough?

The pocket took more of the dye than the shirt, but ended up purple instead of green!

pulling pocket out of dye bath
Ugh!

I left my shirt and pocket in the bath for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, then rinsed them in my washing machine.

After the rinse, I was discouraged to note that while my shirt was now a softer green, it had weird streaks and spots, mostly along one side. 🙁

dyed shirt with spots
Grrrr…

As this shirt wasn’t visibly stained before, I have no idea where these came from!

I was bummed, but I still really wanted this Refashion to work.

So, I figured I’d try to go for an intentionally splattered look on the rest of the shirt.

Let’s Dye it AGAIN!

I grabbed a plastic container and started wadding my shirt up into it, splattering some black dye between the folds as I went.

shirt in container splattered with dye
Like this.

Once I was done, I gently poured boiling hot water into the container. I hoped the extra heat would help the dye set.

pouring water over shirt
Fingers crossed!

When I was done, it looked like this:

shirt in small dye bath
Don’t stir it!

I let it sit in its bath for forty minutes, making sure to NOT stir it this time, as I wanted those dye spots to set in as much as possible.

After another rinse, I was pleased to note my shirt now at least looked a little more intentionally splotchy.

I wasn’t quite feeling the constriction of that turtleneck, so I chopped it off.

cutting turtleneck off shirt
Off you go!

I left the edge raw, as I thought it would work well with the splotches on my shirt.

In a further attempt to make my shirt look like I meant for it to be a little disheveled-looking, I attached my pocket to the front at an angle.

pinning pocket to shirt
Pocket time!
sewing pocket to shirt
Whirrrrr!

Now for those cuffs!

In the before pic for this Refashion, you can see how the sleeves fall over my hands. I decided to shoot for a more blousy sleeve by taking the cuffs in a bit.

First, I turned my shirt inside-out and pinned each one.

pinned sleeve cuff
So artfully lit!

Then, I stitched them down. If you’re doing this at home, you don’t need to worry about cutting off the extra fabric, as it’ll fold in just fine while you’re wearing it.

sewing sleeve cuff
One last bit of stitchery!

Here’s my super comfy shirt (and new wig) now!

from neon yellow to green and mellow after
This is Ashleigh. She misses festival season.

What do you think of my new tresses?

closeup of wig
Ashleigh is pretty chill and drives a white jeep.

And check out the back!

back of wig showing pink highlights
She also plays ukulele.

Okay…enough of my new Wigsona, and back to the Refashion.

While I’m not thrilled with how my dye job worked out, I’m still at least moderately satisfied with this Refashion as a whole. At least it isn’t such a glaring bright yellow anymore.

I like how the pocket looks, and it’s something I know I’ll end up getting lots of wears out of.

close up of dyed shirt refashion
Ashleigh likes it too.
closeup of shirt with pocket
Stop being weird, Ashleigh. Nobody stands like that.

Cheers!

from neon yellow to green and mellow before and after
'80s Maternity Dress Refashion
My Second Chemotherapy Treatment

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