An Obsession You’re Dyeing to Try

Meet my latest obsession:

 

RIT fabric dye, come to Mama! I’ve been having a blast with these little boxes lately. But first, some back story, so that when you decide I’m off my rocker, you’ll at least know why. ;)

 

A friend of mine recommended the book The Child Whisperer by Carol Tuttle to me. Basically, it’s a parenting book that categorizes children (and everything, really) into four Types, based on their personality, movement, facial features, etc., and then gives parenting ideas based on which Type your child falls under. It was a great book, I highly recommend it. But that’s not what this post is about.

 

Once I found out my children’s Types, I was really curious to know mine. So, I read another book by Carol Tuttle called It’s Just My Nature. Which was very helpful in figuring out myself. That book lead me to a third book by Carol called Dressing Your Truth, which is basically a fashion guide based on the Type system. I have loved this system, and for the first time in my life, feel like I have a clue about my own fashion. It’s been great. And for more information about the system, and a free 8-course video on it, look here.

 

And finally, on to the point of this post…now that I know what colors, textures, and styles I’m supposed to wear, it’s time to overhaul my wardrobe. I can’t afford to go out and spend a million dollars on clothes, so I experimented with the next best thing. Fabric dye.

 

That sounds really final, doesn’t it? Haha! It is, but it’s also a lot easier than you might think. I started out really easy, by dirtying up some jeans.

What you’ll need

• a pair of jeans
• some thick rubber gloves
• 1/2 cup of salt
• something to stir with that you don’t care about,  I use the broken off end of a wooden broom handle
• a 5 gallon bucket that you don’t care about (you can get them from WalMart for like $5)
• RIT powder dye, in the colors  you want

Step 1

Boil 28 cups of water in a large pot on the stove.

Step 2

Pour boiling water into 5 gallon bucket. Take your bucket in the garage, or outside onto a surface you don’t care if it gets dye spilled on it, just in case. Put on your gloves. Add Salt. Add Dye. Stir well, and allow to sit until the dye has dissolved (about 5 minutes.)

 

Dye recipe for dirty jeans: 

1 pkg. Tan for dark jeans

1 – 2 tsp Golden Yellow

½ tsp Dark Brown

(use less Golden Yellow for lighter jeans)

Step 3

Get your jeans sopping wet in the sink.

 

Step 4

Put jeans into dye mixture, and stir with wooden stick for 15-30 minutes, depending on how dark you want the dye to set, You want the clothes to be moving pretty much the entire time they’re in the dye, so that they dye evenly.

Step 5

Wring out the clothing items. Then move them to a sink (stainless steel, the dye will stain a porcelain sink) and rinse with warm water. Then again with cold water, until the water runs clear. This will help the dye set.

Step 6

Wash clothing in washing machine on cold, with a 1/2 cup vinegar. Dry in the dryer, or hang to dry.

 

Ta-da! Dirty jeans.

Here’s what they look like on.

I’ve been pretty much dying clothes like crazy since I discovered this. Here a few other helpful tips.

Only dye white, or really light colors.

Natural fibers dye the best.

You can dispose of your dye water down a stainless steel sink, RIT brand is environmentally friendly.

The best place to order the colors you want is Amazon.

I’ve done a couple more color combos that I’ll share with you.

Bittersweet Recipe – comes out kind of a bright red color, it’s beautiful, but I didn’t take any pics, sorry!

1 pkg Golden Yellow.......1 Tbsp Scarlet

 

Peacock Blue Recipe – For this one I tried the liquid dye, so these amounts are for liquid, not powder. Same directions as above though. I also tried a grey sweater, it stayed gray but had a blue tint to it.

1/2 c. Royal Blue.......1 Tbsp. Kelly Green

 

Rust Recipe – This one has probably been my favorite so far.

1 pkg Tangerine..............1 Tbsp Cocoa Brown

 

Notice how much better this cardigan looks in rust.

 

For more recipes for over 500 colors, visit the RIT dye website and check out their formula guide. It’ll tell you the combos you need to create any color you can imagine.

 

Happy Dyeing!