Friday, December 20, 2019

Dressember 2019; Dress 6

Hello Readers. This is my 6th dress for Dressember. Dressember is an organization working to fight human trafficking and modern day slavery. They estimate that human trafficking generates 150 billion dollars a year worldwide. That amount of money is shocking because of the human suffering that is behind it. Go to my Dressember page to learn more and see how you can help.

This refashion was fun and a little surprising for me.

This cotton shirt is just too big. It is so long that it is almost a dress. So, of course, I made a dress. What else would I do in the middle of Dressember?

I also had something to go with it. This black and white jacket. It looks a little dressy but it feels as comfortable as a sweatshirt. The only problem was the color combination. It looks like I broke out of an old-timey prison. (Just to be clear, I have never served time in prison.)

So what did I do? I went to a tried and true friend, Rit dye. Rit dye doesn't know me or pay me to talk about them. I just like them a lot. And this bottle was just sitting in the laundry room waiting to be used. This dye was a surprise. I was expecting a dark red wine color. That isn't what I got.

Here is the white shirt after a wash in the washing machine with the dye. Its like bright pink! You can see I cut off the sleeves and I made a dress from the body of the shirt.

I used a sleeveless shirt as a model for the armholes and finished the edge with bias tape inside.

I made a very straight loose shape for the dress. The fabric didn't have any stretch so I had to keep it loose enough to be comfortable. I liked it by itself with a belt and...

I also liked it with the jacket. I put them in the washer with the dye and they came out looking like a dressy suit outfit. I like the jacket because it makes this dress warm enough to wear in cold weather.

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

2 comments:

KD said...

I really love that pink! Interesting that the 2 garments came out of the dye wash with pretty much the same color (which was not the color shown on the dye bottle)! Color after dying is affected by dye concentration, water temperature, the color before dying, fabric content, fabric weave, fabric finish, any existing stains, and who knows what else!?!? Your cute outfit is one big happy accident!

Thanks for the reminder to consider dying as part of my refashioning arsenal!

I Can Work With That said...

Hi KD,
The dye was a sort of happy accident. I was afraid the clothes might not react to the dye the same way. It's always a mystery what you will get.
Thanks for the comment!
Chickie