New dress!
Well actually it’s not really new at all, in fact I made it barely a year ago… it just feels like a brand spanking new thing somehow just because it’s a brand spanking new colour.
I thought some of the dye batches I’d made up for my Alabama Chanin project still had some oomph in them, and of course I am incapable of throwing out something that still has a use. I absolutely have to scrounge around to find a further use for it first. I selected this dress as a suitable victim, ahem candidate for an update. Its original pale baby blue was never really very good for me, really. I liked and have worn this dress a lot, but I had to admit the colour didn’t really like me back. It washed me right out.
But I still love the fabric; it has an unusual and very charming thing about it, some sort of hard translucent plastic has been “splattered” all over it that sparkle in the sun rather prettily, like random sequins or something. I only bought the fabric in the first place because I fell in love with those sparkly splatter-dots.
Anyway; I soaked it, plunged it into an old, cold bath of various mixed up dyes; iDye in Royal Blue, Golden Yellow and small amount of Brown, and left it overnight. The dye had so much staying power… the colour came out incredibly strong!
The buttons on the sleeves were white plastic and I was prepared to change them if the white stood out glaringly hideous afterwards. However the dye had SO much further oomph left in it that it actually stained the buttons teal as well. Win!
Another little happy side effect is that I think the darker colour makes my beloved sparkly splatter-dots stand out even MORE than they did before.
