I've been playing with dye for a few weeks now.
I dyed some costumes from white to grey, some dance shorts from white to silver, some shoes from red to black, some other shoes from grey to nude, some muslin from white to baby pink, and a set of sheets from grey to teal.
I have been using a dye in my front loader and it's so simple. Put the soluble sachet of dye in the drum of the washer, pour over 500gms of salt, add the items you want to dye, wash on the Delicate cycle once to dye, and a second time to remove any excess. Done. Cost $12 to dye 5 or 6 items. Awesome :)
I've also been altering and mending, and can't believe I didn't catch on to how simple this is, before now. All I do is put the item on inside out (whether on myself or someone else), pin to get the fit I want, stitch away and Voila! Perfectly fitting jeans, shorts, tops, dresses, PJ pants, or whatever. Doh! What made me think THAT was difficult. Granted, you don't want to look at the inside of my altered garment as it's a long way from pretty, but it works!
I even replaced a zipper in a pair of jeans and another in a corset we'd embellished for DD to wear with a pencil skirt, with a little help from Google and YouTube. It took me under half an hour and cost me $7 for the jeans and $3 for the corset.
What's struck me is how often we pass something over at sales or the op shop, or discard it from our own wardrobe, whether it's a shirt or pair of pants that aren't a perfect fit or the right colour, or a pair of shoes that you like the style of and the price of but not the colour of, or jeans or dresses or jumpers that just need a button or a zip replaced, or a thread pulled to the other side. All of those things are easily remedied for a small investment of money and time.
Did you know that if you pull a thread on a jumper, all you have to do is get a needle with a large eye, poke it through the knit hole that the pulled thread is coming from, thread the needle with the loose thread, and pull it through to the opposite side. Fixed!
And do you know how much those professional altering places charge to do those sorts of alterations or dyeing....crazy!
I reckon a $12 sachet of black dye, a zip or two for under $8, a bottle or tin of shoe paint, and an altering session is going to give me a whole new Winter wardrobe.
It's a good strategy :)
