Dye a Boring Dress

 Hello Readers. This dress refashion was a process. I started with a very boring linen dress. It was just too plain for me. The simple style was fine but the color was more boring than a bowl of plain oatmeal. I wanted more color and more fun. I did that with some dye, Rit dye to be exact.

Before and after.

I started with this dress. It was very nice linen but it was such a boring, plain tan color. The color was just so "meh". I needed something more fun. I also thought it was a little long on me. That's OK, I could fix that later.

I decided to start by changing the color. I used this aquamarine Rit dye for natural fibers.  I liked this color and it would be a lot more fun to wear.  

I used my washing machine. Rit dye has very good directions on the bottle so I followed those directions. You can also use a pot of hot water on your stove. Use the method that works best for you. Follow the directions and your clothing item will turn out great. 

 

I used a yard stick as a guide to cut the dress shorter. I stood the yard stick up and held it against the dress on my dress form. Your height will be different from mine but I wanted to cut at the 14" mark. I moved the dress around and held the yard stick against the dress to see where to cut.cut around the dress at the 14" mark and got the length that I wanted. 

 

I turned the edge of the aqua dress under twice and ironed it in place. Ironing it would make it so much easier to make a neat hem. 

I used my sewing machine to sew the new hem along the bottom of the dress. I turned the edge under twice and used a straight stitch all around the hemline. 

I liked the new color and shorter length of the dress. The aqua is fun and bright. It's so much better to me than the plain oatmeal color it was originally.

I wore this out to dinner with my husband. We will be married 30 years soon, and went out to dinner when we had an available babysitter. (I'm sure parents can relate, a good available babysitter is hard to find.)  

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