A less observant refashionista might not have noticed anything amiss with today’s dress.
But look a little closer!
Some of the black stripes have bled onto the white stripes, making the whole thing look pretty shabby from close up. Also, the length was just a tad too long for my tastes.
I got started by chopping off some of the bottom fabric.
Then, I started a dye bath with these guys:
Some of you are probably wondering what’s up with my color choice. First off, the fabric of this dress is a cotton/polyester blend. This means that it isn’t going to take on a very saturated hue. I wanted to dye it a soft grey, but I hate flat grey. Adding a bit of Kelly Green dye to the mix will give it a more complex and interesting color.
To make things even more interesting, I grabbed a few hair ties…
…and bunched up different parts of the skirt of my dress like so:
I dropped it into the bath for about 30 minutes, gave it a good rinse & dry, then put it on my dress form.
I grabbed the undyed bottom section, and pinned it to my new dress.
I started to stitch it down, and kept coming up with the same problem: The upper thread kept breaking off! 🙁
I re-threaded my machine, and switched out the needle. No dice. What to do?!?!
Thankfully, I have some very knowledgeable readers out there! When I started having problems with my machine coming unthreaded, a few of you told me I needed to clean my machine.
Methinks they were right!
I ran out the door to meet a friend for some celebratory sushi!
Cheers!
me too, unless it just didnt photo well. but i would love you to post a dye tutorial with all of your tricks. i have always been afraid to dye but you are tempting me!
Love the blog, but I have to say, sorry, but this one was a swing and a miss. I like the overall idea, but the piece of fabric at the bottom did nothing style wise, it was just there. And I didn’t really like the dye job. Sorry that I said that, but that’s just my opinion.
I love the grey hue, I check out your refashions everyday and I am impressed with your perseverance to do one everyday. (and with the great results). But today I am compelled to leave a comment: what is the 6 you made with the undyed fabric? You seem to have enough material for a cute pocket or a double spiral (when you would split it).
groetjes, Letitia (the Netherlands)