Wannabe Wednesday: Retail Therapy & A Lesson In Dyeing!

I haven’t been conventional clothes shopping in at least a couple of years. That’s right! I’ve gone full-thrift/refashion, and there’s no going back! 🙂

But sometimes I like to scour the interwebs and check out all the cute dresses I could be buying at expensive retailers. This silk dress by Tory Burch from Saks Fifth Avenue caught my eye.

Navy and white is one of my favorite color combinations. It’s a classic that never seems to go out of style. Tory Burch is known for using really lovely and interesting prints in her designs, but you know what? So am I! 🙂

I found this dress with a similar print for $1.

This print is positively Burchian! :) — This print is positively Burchian! 🙂

TIME OUT!!!!

This dress is made of polyester. Polyester is acrylic, and doesn’t take to dye very well at all. I keep getting emails that ask me about dyeing, and this seems like a good time to give you a little demonstration.

I put this polyester dress in a yellow dye bath with a cotton dress.

Why would I do that? I want my dress to look like the original, which is white and navy, not yellow!

I did this to show you that this dress will not take on the dye, because it’s acrylic! I knew I had nothing to worry about.

The water was hot. The dress stayed in its bath for 1/2 hour with its companion.

…and now it’s only slightly cream-colored.

Because acrylic fabrics don’t like dye.

Get it? 🙂

For my next refashion, you’ll get to see what happened to that cotton dress! 🙂

TIME IN!!!!

This dress actually fits me pretty well, but the length is just too early 90’s to be a proper copycat!

I quickly hemmed and pinned the bottom edge.

I wanted the waist to have more definition, like the Tory Burch version, but I was already running late for a beer/wine/movie night! I folded the scrap over a couple of times to hide the raw edge and used it as a sash (it’s been a while, eh?)! The back of the dress has a slit, so the ends of the sash were already finished. I’ll go back and make it into a proper sash later when I have time. 🙂

And here’s the Jilly Burch version!