Feeling Blue (Dye)

Hello Readers. I love thrifting and refashioning and I am always on the hunt for clothes I can make-over. Some of the things I find are amazing and some are just ugly and sad. The clothes I started with today were some of the saddest. I used some Rit dye to transform these sad off-white clothes into something that didn't make me want to cry.

 

 

Here they are, get some tissues ready, they are awful. The shirt is a plain men's dress shirt. The skirt is a sweater type knit fabric. The dropped waist was big decades ago, now it is just dated. Both of these items are a weird, faded off-white color that just looks dirty and dingy. They aren't quite beige and they aren't a pretty cream color either. I couldn't leave them this yucky color.

 

Here is the cure for this sad situation. Well, it is the first step. I used this denim blue dye in my washer. It was super easy, and I got clothes in a fun color when I was done.

Why did I choose blue? I already had it on hand. Any new color would have been an improvement.

 

Here are clothes after their dye job. The shirt didn't absorb as much of the dye as the skirt did, but they both look a lot better. Now that the color is better, I can work on the style.

 

I decided to cut off the elastic waistband of the skirt. I saved it and used the bottom of the skirt to make a simple straight shaped skirt. I wanted the finished edge at the bottom of the skirt so I wouldn't have to make a new hem. Hemming this thick material would be bulky and probably not work out well. It is better to use the lower portion of the skirt to get a nice looking hem. Using the bottom of the skirt also allowed me to get rid of that dated style of dropped waist.

 

 

I have to be honest, I think these clothes have been drastically improved. I would never wear the original outfit but I would wear this blue ensemble. The shirt just needed to have the sleeves rolled up to improve the fit and the skirt is totally different now. The shorter length and new fit work much better and look more modern.

I was pleased with how my use of the dye paid off.

 

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.