Adventures in dying.

Can you guess what I'm going to do with these?

 Yep, you guessed it I'm going to dye "stuff."

This is the before, a pair of bleached pants (used to be black but more on that later) one of my favorite shirts that had a small bleach stain, a bunch of pastel pink jersey I got for super cheap like-thirty-cents-a-yard-cheap, some cow print fabric gifted to me that really wasn't something I would ever use, and a funky fat quarter of triangle print cotton fabric.

 

Begin with filling your washer with the hottest setting possible. Then add one cup of salt to the water. I let it agitate for a few seconds to make sure the salt is completely dissolved. Next add the dye. Be careful not to splash yourself! Let agitate for a few seconds to make sure the dye is completely mixed in.

Now to add the fabric to the washer. You MUST soak the fabric in water first to attain an even dye. Trust me, I forgot once and ended up tiger striped pants, and not in a good way. Let the water agitate for the full cycle, stop the washer before the rinse cycle, let sit for fifteen minutes, reset the agitate cycle and let it run again, do this as many times as needed to make sure the fabric has been in the dye bath for sixty minutes. Less time for lighter shades, but I'm looking for a vibrant color! Let the washer run through the whole cycle. next I machined dried the fabric. I washed it again and dried it one more time.

Ta-dah!

I really liked how they turned out. The cow print is actually my favorite and I will definitely be using it now.

At first I was kind of nervous about putting purple dye in my washer but I did it anyway, I was feeling brave! After I was done dying I ran a large load with a cup of bleach on the hottest setting and I'm happy to report that not dye was left behind. I even washed my white robe and nothing happened! 

*Remember to follow the instructions on the bottle.