When I found this dress for $1 at the thrift store, I thought, “Hmmmmm…It’s not so bad.”
The fit is fine, and the fabric is an incredibly comfy lightweight washable silk.
But it’s not grrrrreat either. The two main things I didn’t like about this dress as-is were the color and the length.
Not to worry! I had a plan!
Let’s dye it!
I found this dye during my most recent craft store visit, and it’s a hue I hadn’t seen before!
Since this dress was silk, I knew it would take to the dye really well.
In retrospect, I didn’t realize just HOW well…but…spoilers!
I prepared my dye bath and added my new dress.
My dye bath was just hot water, the eggplant dye, and some salt (to help it set). I use a big pot (which I use for nothing other than dye as dye is toxic when ingested) to dye my clothes, since my washing machine is a terrible front-loader (I hateses it).
After 40 minutes in its bath, I dumped out the water from my pot in my kitchen sink and rinsed my dress in my washing machine by running it through one wash cycle sans detergent.
Let’s hem it!
After it was washed and dried, I gave my now-VERY-eggplant dress a big chop.
I folded the new bottom edge under and pinned it down.
Then, I stitched it down!
I didn’t stop there though. I use a lot of decorative stitches in my refashions, but not everyone has decorative stitches as a feature on their machine.
However, just a few lines of zigzag stitches in different colors can give your refashion a little extra oomph.
After I pressed my new hem, my dress refashion was done!
But wait! What is this? This doesn’t look like my yard (where all of my pics have been taken as of late), does it?
Last week, Mr. Refashionista and I decided to book a cabin weekend in Georgia Wine Country. We stayed at this lovely airbnb.
Sadly, my dress got a little wrinkled in the 3.5 hour drive, so my “after” shots aren’t that great. :/
All wineries employed social distancing, sanitizing and mask-wearing measures to keep everyone safe.
It was so nice to be able to get away together, especially after being cooped up for so long.
And here’s a closer look at that new hem!
While at the cabin, we drank our newly-acquired wine and played a few games of backgammon (which I’ve recently gotten into!).
Cheers!
