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Leftover Dye? Give This a Try: A Jar Overdye Tutorial

The Best
A Celebratory Housecoat to '60s Inspired Dress Refashion

When I found this lovely Indian tunic at the thrift shop, I was super-happy.  I LOVE tunic dresses, and figured this one could be worn as-is.

Seems pretty straightforward, right?
Seems pretty straightforward, right?

My eyes must be going.  :/  When I got my tunic home and took a closer look, I saw why someone probably donated it.

Oh no!
Oh no!

That’s right.  Someone ignored the “Dry Clean Only” tag and tossed this once-beautiful tunic into their washing machine.  :/  The dye was everywhere, and very noticeable.  :/

Everywhere.
Everywhere.

I hadn’t planned on doing a refashion of this piece, but I saw no other way to make this dress wearable.  I dug into my dye stash for the answer to my problem.

First, I started wadding up the dress into a jar, sprinkling some black powdered dye into the folds…

You'll do fine!
You’ll do fine!
Sprinkle sprinkle!
Sprinkle sprinkle!

Unfortunately, this box had been opened before and only had a little bit of dye left…not enough to add dye all the way up.  Undaunted, I grabbed a bottle of dye that was almost used up.

Eh...it's all I had!
Eh…it’s all I had!
DSC_5483
Just a dab!

As I am an honest blogger, I’ll just let you know that I didn’t think this color combo was going to work too well together, but Orange and Black were all I had on hand.  I crossed my fingers and poured some hot water into the jar.

Sending good vibes!
Sending good vibes!

I closed the lid (which turned out to be a terrible idea) and left my project on the counter while I had lunch with a friend.

DSC_5488
Looks…interesting…

When I got back, the lid had sealed shut! I COULD NOT pry it open.  I tried using a butter knife and a screwdriver.  I even tried submerging the jar in hot water.  Then I tried cold water.  Nothing worked!  I started to panic, as I didn’t want my new dress to be sitting in its dye bath for too long.

I eventually broke the jar with a hammer.  No lie.  Drastic times call for drastic measures, friends.

At this point, my dress was thoroughly saturated with dye, so I dropped it my washing machine for a couple of cycles to rinse all the excess dye away.

Here’s the result of my labors:

It's...different...
It’s…different…

You can see where this tunic has slitted sides (hence my underdress peeking out in the pic above).  The dye job ended up being more dramatic than I had intended, but I actually really like it!

I especially like how the neckline turned out.

I dig!
I dig!

My buddy Ryan liked it too!

Hi Ry!
Hi Ry!

We hopped over to this tasty place for a treat:

sweet

While there, I met this cool young lady who told me she was just starting to get into sewing after reading my blog…which did my heart a world of good.  ðŸ™‚

Hi!
Hi!

Fun times in a fun new frock!  ðŸ™‚

ba920
The Best
A Celebratory Housecoat to '60s Inspired Dress Refashion