DIY DYE.

The title of this post looks overly aggressive if you don't read it properly the first time, but I couldn't think of anything better to name it! When I say 'dye' what I'm talking about is simply changing the colour of your clothes to different (better) one. I have dyed clothes once before; I dyed some black highwaist shorts black. I know that makes me sound crazy, but I wore these shorts aaall the time and couldn't stand the fact that they'd faded because of the numerous washes.

 

This time however I branched out a little bit as the item I chose to dye was a bit too dark to accept colour as it was (I should probably introduce the item I chose to play with. It’s a yoga jumper from Sweaty Betty which I love since it has thumbholes, but don’t wear often because of its ugly grey/green colour, which oddly does not show up in the photo) so I purchased Dylon Pre-Dye. I was a bit wary of this as it has to go inside the washing machine, something I’d rather not be responsible for breaking! The instructions say to put the item on the hottest, longest wash then add in the pre-dye mixed into boiling water. I chose to do this in my student house - less backlash if I accidentally dye the floor -  and didn’t really fancy the expense of the longest wash so stuck it on for the standard 30 minute quick wash. The pre-dye mix smelt absolutely disgusting so I quickly poured it in the drawer and let it be. 

30 minutes later I was pleasantly surprised, my jumper had lightened to a yellowy/green colour. I put it back in for a quick rinse to be sure there was no residue left on it. Then set about prepping the dye. I has been waiting for Wilkinson’s to re-stock pre-dye for so long that I couldn’t be bothered to wait for them to get the pastel colour I wanted to try out, I  picked up ‘Burlesque Red’ instead. This is an odd choice of name since even the picture on it is a displays a maroon/purple colour. Hand Dying takes 15 minutes of constant attention and 45 minutes of ‘checking up on’ so that the item moves enough as not to absorb more dye into creases.

I am quite happy with the final product, I think the burgundy colour is nice for sports/leisureware and the process to transform this into a new item was releatively easy. I will definitely be using these dyes again (especially at £2.99 each), and would probably purchase the pre-day pack (£3) too providing the smell comes out in the wash as I really dislike it!

Please excuse the horrendous photos, I was using my phone :/