Dye Job

(My altered blue sweatshirt in the bright winter sun.)

At Thanksgiving, I took advantage of the sales and bought Weston Wear’s Colorblocked Lace Pullover from Anthropologie in the navy blue backing.  I’ve bought several things from this brand before, and never had a problem laundering them.  But this time, for some reason, the blue under the lace bled onto the fabric when I washed it according to the instructions.  I thought about returning it, but the navy blue style was no longer available, so I decided to keep it and try my hand at dyeing it.

(The blue underlay bled onto the fabric all along the edges.)

This was my first time dyeing clothing, but October Rebel has written about dyeing clothes successfully, so I thought I had nothing to lose.  My hope was to color everything a dark blue to match the backing under the lace.  At the very least, I could always wear my new sweatshirt around the house, so I was excited to try it out.

(I used Rit Dye in Denim Blue.)

I used Rit’s Denim Blue color instead of Navy after reading the reviews on Amazon.  Most people found the Navy turned out purple, and I was hoping for a deeper shade of blue.

(The dye foams when added to water.)

I put an old basin in my sink, filled it with hot water, and added a third of the dye bottle before immersing the blouse.  After letting it soak for an hour and washing my shirt, I realized the color was uneven in some areas, so I repeated the same steps the next day.  This time, I stirred it repeatedly as the shirt soaked, and that helped to disperse the color more evenly.

After an hour of soaking, I washed the top again, and it turned out as well as I had hoped!

(A detail of the blue lace.)

I’m so happy that I was able to salvage my new shirt, and I wore it to James’ birthday party on Saturday.  It’s soft and comfortable, and the perfect shade of blue.