Dye Job

Maybe its because lots of mom’s clothing dates back to the 70’s, maybe its because we line dry things, or maybe its just because we don’t easily part with clothing unless it has a gaping hole in it (and usually that hole has to be somewhere important like the crotch before we’ll actually throw it away), either way we have lots of items of clothing that are faded but still structurally sound.

In an attempt to salvage these items mom and I decided to re-dye them. The skirt that I dyed was one that I had picked up at the Salvation Army several years ago. It is a very nice white cotton skirt with embroidered eyelets that is lined. It was a little on the dingy side when I got it and somehow it has gotten much worse (I say that as if I’m not really sure how it happened, even though I spill something on whatever I’m wearing several times a day).


I don't have a great before picture of the skirt but this closeup shows the nice embroidery and one of the scary stains I may or may not have been responsible for.

For this project we were extra frugal and fished out a whole bunch of packs of dye that we had lying around from previous projects. I decided on coral for my skirt.

One of the downsides to dying skirts like this is that while the skirt itself was cotton and absorbed the dye just fine, the liner was synthetic so it, along with the zipper, stayed perfectly white. In this case it doesn’t bother me but it might have been an issue had I chosen a much darker color.

In the end I think the color came out a little streaky. Perhaps I had too much fabric in too small a container which didn’t allow it to all evenly get exposed to the dye. I’m hoping this will even out as I wash and wear it. But other then that I am happy because it turned what was a structurally sound but ugly skirt into a far more useful one.

I hope that the fact that the skirt is in dire need of ironing will distract you from the fact that if you zoomed in on the photo really really close you'd probably be able to see that my legs desperately need shaving.