We celebrated Brielle’s birthday this weekend with a small party at our house. I had purchased a “Well Dressed Wolf” dress special for her 4th birthday. Since I bought it during the summer months we actually got a few uses out of it. She wore it on our vacation to Gulf Shores one day and then she also wore it to the dedication of her brothers. It is a pretty chiffon layered dress in pink and peach tones. Brielle decided the day before her party she didn’t want to wear this dress. She wanted to wear a Rapunzel dress. The first problem with this was that we don’t own a Rapunzel dress. Problem #2 was that they didn’t have any at the store when we went shopping for the party that day. I decided to flex my creativity muscles and dye the “Well Dressed Wolf” dress purple the night before her party.
Photos of Brielle wearing the dress before it was dyed:
I have dyed a number of garments of fabric over the years including dresses, skirts, and shirts of my own. It is fairly simply to dye things. You just need some RIT dye to start. Here is what I used to dye Brielle’s dress: RIT Purple Dye
There are two primary methods of dying. One is to use the stove top and boil the water with the dye and garment in a large pot (of course follow the directions on the bottle for the exact procedure). I decided to opt for less mess and try doing it in the washing machine. I had never done this method before, as I worried that the dye would stain the inside of my washing machine, as the seal for the door is plastic material. I convinced myself to try it anyway, as I could bleach the inside of the washer if stains appeared after the dying. I followed the instruction and the dress turned out perfectly! I was amazed! I did run the washer twice. I wanted to make sure the dye was really set. After removing the dress I did see a faint purple tint to the plastic seal on the washer so I added about a cup of bleach and then ran the washer empty on the hot wash cycle. Sure enough, it worked! You can’t even tell that I dyed anything in there. I have washed two loads since then, including whites and have not had a single issue. I will definitely be using the washing machine method to dye things again in the future! Again, the directions are right on every bottle of RIT dye, so you can select whichever method makes you more comfortable. I am glad I finally tried the washer method, as it was far easier than using the stove top method!
Warning…NEVER, EVER leave a pot of water with dye on the stove and walk away. I did that once and spent HOURS trying to remove dye from our kitchen island and cabinets. Not fun. I only left the room for a few minutes and the boiling water overflowed EVERYWHERE. The dye I used for that project was black, so it was not a good mistake to make.
Here she is at her party yesterday in her Rapunzel dress. She was a happy girl and she loves her “new” dress!
