Introducing a fabulous article from Heidi Walker of Adventures of a Juggling Artist. She was the first person to respond to me about blogging on Good Girl Gone Shopping (I sent out a message to members of my Facebook group inviting guest posts.) So with delight, I present her article about creatively transforming fashion pieces with dye. Enjoy!White it is just not my color. I always get it stained somehow. Frankly, I find it boring. In the past year, however, I have come across some really cute clothes that were in white ONLY.
At first my heart was broken, but one day when milling around the sewing store I walked past dye. I took a CHANCE! It turned out beautiful! Here are the results of two items:
The gold stitching is synthetic, so it stay when I dyed the dress.
As you can see the Greek style of the dress was only emphasized further.
Then a few months later it was vacation time, so I ordered a pair of shorts and thought I would dye them. At this point I thought I was the expert. WRONG!!! I went cheap and easy on the dye. RIT from the grocer. Bad idea, the color came out uneven and the directions were not clear.
So I waited a few months and then decided to try it again. I went back to the sewing store and bought the prettiest blue dye. I read the directions and they were DIFFERENT than the RIT. They clearly instructed you to not only use CLEAN (of course, I did that) but DAMP clothing when dying it.
The dampness distributes the color evenly to prevent streaking. Here are the results from my second SUCCESS story:
Honestly this pick does not do the color justice. It is even brighter.
Lessons learned:
- It takes only three dollars to change the color of a BORING white piece of clothing you have had in your closet forever.
- Getting a good quality dye is important.
- Using GLOVES is necessary and will keep your hands pretty.
- This can only be done with certain fabrics and those are listed on the dye package.
- You will be able to dye two pieces of clothing for each packet of dye you have.
- This is an AWESOME way to update your wardrobe. Each time I wear these pieces of clothing I get compliments and gaping stares at the clothing, because they are beautiful.
You can TRULY be a "Good Girl Gone Shopping" with this project. Elana, thank you for allowing me to share my love for frugal fashion.
Happy weekend everyone! It is SHOPPING time!
Heidi Walker
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Heidi
7 comments:
Love the name of your blog! You know, I never think about dying clothes... hmmm.... my mind is full of ideas now! Thanks for visiting Inspired Design & for your sweet comment. ~ Debby xo
What an interesting idea! It's always sad when white items become... non-white, so this is actually a really good idea!
What a fun idea and what a great guest blogger to start with! Love the new look =)
Hi! thanks for you comment on my blog. I'll be looking through yours as well. :)
Thank you for visiting my blog !! I love yours :)
I love OPI nail polishes too, they're the best !! The one I bought is the perfect red/coral for summer, I believe it's Mod-Ern Girl :)
Yes, I think Heidi's tips are amazing! I think I may dye one of my white tanks a bright shade pretty soon!
Thanks Denice!
Oh, how this blog brought back memories from the past. In my day(the 70's)the trend was away from synthetics to natural fibers. Then to personalize and create a unique article of cotton fabric with tie-dye and batik.
Another good idea, when thinking of modifying clothing, is to take really special buttons off clothes before discarding. Then when you want to change up a blouse or jacket, you have a selection of buttons to use for a different look.
Post a Comment