Doily garland!

Last winter, I helped make decorations for my friends baby shower :)  Her nursery colors were blue & orange, and let me tell you, I found it pretty tricky to get orange decorations at the store.  So, I bought some white paper doilies and some orange Rit dye and made my own.  I poured enough of the dye in the bottom of my pot (that I use only for craft projects) and added water to it, so it was probably about a 50:50 solution.

 

Mixed that all together, then added each doily individually into the mixture, making sure they were covered with the dye on both sides, and were not touching each other.  (I could dye about 3 at a time in my container) 

 

GLOVES came in handy :)  Though I do believe I still had an orange finger in the end.

 

Each doily was probably only in the dye about 5-10 seconds, then I took them out and set them on a stack of old rags so they could air dry.

 

Once they were dry, I cut a long piece of kite string and strung the doilies onto it.  After the spacing looked OK, I added scotch tape to the back of the doily (over the string) to keep it all in place.

 

DIY Orange doily garland!

 

It was so much fun to make :)

 

Didn't get a picture of them hanging on the wall though, oh well.

Halloween 2011 - Royal Wedding - Uniform progress 2

After sewing the top part of Hubby's Prince William Halloween costume, I started working on the bottom part. Once that was sewn together and lined, I attached the top and bottom portions of the coat (no pics of that yet though), followed by a lot of hand sewing to get the lining in throughout.

Now that the coat is complete, well as far as the pattern goes, it's time to get to making the details that make it more like Prince William's uniform.

First of all, I cut black fabric to sew at the base of each sleeve. Using that fabric to determine the width, I cut black felt into the shape shown below. There will be one of those felt pieces on each sleeve.

To decorate the felt, I needed white piping and black cording. But, most importantly I needed yellow cording. I went to an insane amount of stores looking for the kind of cording that would be most similar (and least expensive) and ended up buying some from Hobby Lobby. However they only carried it in black and white.

Even though I was 99.9% sure that dye would not take to this cording, I went ahead and bought the white stuff anyways, and a pack of yellow dye.

The yellow color it turned out was perfect for what I needed. But, I still didn't get my hopes up. When I went to rinse the cording out after dying it, all the dye washed down the drain and my cord was stark white again. LOL. So, on to the new method.... painting it. I need to pick up a better yellow paint from the store, mine are too bright.

Tie Dye!

Hubs and I are on vacation, so I thought I'd share some pictures from when my Little (big brothers big sisters) and I tie dyed shirts:

Here's my Little's shirt all full of dye:

Here's my shirt all full of dye:


The instructions on the tie dye package said to wrap the shirts in saran wrap to keep the dye moist... we tried that, but decided it was better to put them in plastic ziploc bags.



8-9 hours later, I rinsed our shirts out and put them through the laundry.

Here's how my Little's shirt turned out:

Here's how my shirt turned out:



I didn't think to look at the fabric contents before we dyed the shirts because the shirt I bought for her was from a stack right next to the tie dye kits. I used an old white shirt of Hubby's that had a stain on it fo myself.

I knew that dye works much better on cotton fabrics and looking at the shirts now it is very apparent.

My old stained shirt was 100% cotton and her new shirt (bought right by the dye) was 50% polyester and 50% cotton. Bummer. Her shirt still turned out really cute, but I would have searched for a 100% cotton shirt for her to use too... guess I shouldn't just assume the craft aisle has the best options in line.

Redyed shirt = SUCCESS!

It only took 2 tries (of undying and redying a bleach spotted shirt) to fix my shirt! OK, it should have only taken one try, but I was not properly equipped last time. I am now, so I'm excited for all future excuses to dye fabric :)

Front

Back

This shirt still isn't perfect but it is much better than it was, and is now actually wearable. If it weren't, I would try to fix it again :)

I would have preferred a slightly darker shade of green, like the last time I dyed this shirt. However, last time, the dark green fabric hid some of the logos on the shirt, so that is why I didn't leave the fabric in the dye bath any longer.

Redying the shirt take 2

So the shirt I've been working on (trying to fix/hide the fact that it has bleach spots) had the dye removed, and is now ready to be dyed again!

I bought Dylon Olive Green dye, attempting to make the shirt as close to the original color as possible (short of mixing dyes).

Here's what happened:

1. Using gloves, I mixed the dye powder into warm water, in a stainless steel pot.

2. I put the DAMP shirt to be dyed, into the dye bath

After 3 min in the mix (above)

After 9 min in the mix.

I stopped dying the shirt after 9 minutes. Last time I dyed it much longer, and the color was a pretty cool dark green. But, the color was so dark that it hid some of the green screen printed patterns, so that is why I'm going lighter this time.

3. Rinse the shirt

4. Wash it

I forgot to add salt in the mix. I've heard this helps prevent dye bleeding in the future (I've also heard washing it in vinegar?) Maybe I'll do that next time.

Now, I'm waiting for the laundry to get done to see how this turned out!

The outcome from dye removal

I ruined a shirt with bleach awhile back and tried to save it by removing the dye, and redying it. It turned out uneven (because of my method I believe) so, I'm trying it again!

Here's what the shirt looked like after un/redying it the first time:


Here is the front of it after undying it the second time:


Finally, here is what the back looked like after undying it the second time:


The shirt is still not completely even, but hopefully it will be good enough. I ended up leaving the dye removal solution on the shirt MUCH longer than recommended and didn't want to press my luck :)

Undying a shirt

Now that we're all set up, lets undye this shirt. The purpose of doing this process is to make the coloring even (hopefully getting rid of some nasty bleach spots) so that it can be redyed later on. If you redye a splotchy mess, it's going to end up a splotchy mess, but in a different color :)


Steps to undye a shirt:

1. Pour the mix (Rit color remover) into some "simmering" water. Again, make sure your pot is stainless steel & that it will be dedicated to dying items and not used for food again.



2. Put the damp shirt into the newly mixed solution





3. Be careful of fabric bleeding dye after you've dyed it. This shirt was dyed before (but only was washed once since that) and left a big old bucket of green water after a short time soaking.

4. Wait, stir occasionally, and check the color or lack there of. The box suggests a total of 10-30 minutes in the solution.

This was RIGHT when I put the shirt in, instant change! Most of the green is gone.

1 minute in the mix

10 minutes in the mix

30 min in the mix

*My shirt was STILL splotchy after 30 minutes... so I dared to keep it in the solution longer. I kept a close eye on it and had my fingers crossed that the screen printed image wouldn't come off, and that the shirt wouldn't end up in shreds!*

40 min in the mix, looking pretty good, but still definite spots left.

50 minutes... eek, I ended up leaving my shirt in the solution an extra 20 minutes... but I think it finally came out alright. Hopefully it washes up nicely and is strong enough to be dyed and worn!

5. Rinse the shirt starting in hot water, then going to warm.

6. Wash it, and hope for the best :)

Supplies for removing dye from shirt

I'm removing dye from a bleach spotted shirt hoping to make the color even so it can be redyed a normal color. I refuse to let a little bleach permanently take the life from this shirt!

Since my washing machine is new, and I fear hurting or staining it in any way, I'm using the stove top method to remove the dye. I have heard the washing machine method works well and fabric turns out evenly dyed (or undyed) but don't know this first hand.

Here is what I used to remove the dye from my shirt: (remember results may vary, depending on many different factors such as fabric content and methods)

1. The shirt should be damp when starting this process. Mine was not, so I threw it in a bucket of water (and later wrung it out), and had beagle keep a close eye on it. (ok really, I put a lid on the bucket when I saw how interested he was in it)

2. A large stainless steel pot (this one is 12 qt.) (DO NOT use aluminum or anything non-stick)


3. A long stirring utensil that can be dedicated to dye projects only in the future (I used a wooden spoon)
4. 1 box of color remover: Rit Laundry Treatment color remover
5. Rubber gloves

Redying bleach stained shirt, take 2

This week is fabric dying week on my blog. Follow along with me as I have my second go at fixing a bleach stained shirt by removing the dye, and redying it.

You may remember these previous posts on the topic:
attempt to fix bleach spots on shirt take 1 pt 1
attempt to fix bleach spots on shirt take 1 pt 2

Again, remember these key things about this shirt and process:

1. The shirt I'm working with doesn't have a label, so I don't know the fabric content
2. This shirt has been undyed and redyed before (but I will be going about it a little differently this time)
3. The outcome of the shirt is never a guarantee, and what happens with my shirt may or may not happen to yours (or mine if I try it again in the future)

Here's how the shirt looked after the last round of dye: (hmmm looks a little splotchy, but I think this can be fixed)

I will be using a box of Rit laundry treatment color remover, and a bag of Dylon olive green fabric dye.

Attempt to fix bleach spots on shirt: part II

In case you missed it here is part I of my attempt to fix bleach spots on a shirt

To try to save a bleach spotted shirt, I first used Rit color remover to even out the shirts color.

I used the solution for the minimum recommended time due to the decals on the shirt.  I've heard sometimes those come off with the dye too, but have no experience with this.

Here it the front of my shirt after the color remover: 

Sort of a weird yellow color, but for the most part the coloring is even, which is good.  (hmmm maybe I should have left it this way?  Nah)

Here is the back of the shirt after the color remover:

 

There still is a fair amount of mismatched coloring in the center, but it's better than it was.  I think the color would have blended more if I left the color remover on for more than 10 minutes.

Everything looked good to move forward onto the redying step.

But then, things didn't work out as well as I had hoped.  I believe this was largely due to user error.

What did I do wrong?

This:



I didn't have another container suitable to dye fabric in, and decided this pot (now designated for this purpose only) would be ok if I kept stirring the shirt.

No.  The pot was too small.  Not all of the shirt was covered with dye at any given time, and pockets formed in the shirt creating an uneven dye pattern.  Stirring was hard to do, at least when trying to get things even. 

The images below aren't very accurate as the shirt is still slightly wet from the wash.  So some of the darker areas are water.  BUT, as you can see a nice little spot right in the center of the shirt needing dye.  There definitely are several uneven patches that remained on the shirt after it dried.

Again, a large amount of the dark portions of the shirt are due to it still being slightly wet.  However, there are definite areas needing more dye.  They're kind of wrinkly looking patches.

The areas of the shirt that did not pick up dye for the most part were not the same areas that were affected by bleach.  I think this would have worked well, had I used a bigger dying bucket.

Where does this leave the shirt?

I am not giving up on this thing yet.  I bought a 5 gal bucket (and lid) and some more dye.  I decided I didn't want to do the color remover again.... but now think I will to have a fresh start.  So, I'll have to pick that up sometime and try this again!



Attempt to fix bleach spots on shirt: part I

Normally I don't get too bothered by a stubborn stain, or bleach spot that ruins a shirt (or other clothing). I generally make the stained or bleached item into something else, use it as a "dirty work" shirt/pants/whatever, or retire it.

However, I got a shirt as a souvenir on my honeymoon, and only wore it one time before bleach spots tried to end its existence.  I was really disappointed, and couldn't bring myself to part with the shirt, or make it into something else, so I'm trying my best to do something to preserve it.  (I usually don't use bleach in the laundry, for this very reason.... but I figured "just this one time")

This is what happened to my shirt:

Oh, that's not soooooo bad..... but, it gets worse, check out the back of the shirt:

So, in an attempt to fix this shirt and "rid it of bleach spots" I am trying a multiple step undying, redying process.

First, I used 1 pack of Rit Color Remover and followed the directions carefully.  I went the stove top route and now have a big pot (don't worry, it was an old one!) and long wooden spoon dedicated to fabric dying projects in the future.

**This shirt does not have a listing of fabric content... and I've heard many people complain about not having success with the color remover, or fabric dying process, so whatever happens good or bad to my shirt might not be what would happen in another situation.**

This is what my shirt looked like after 10 minutes on the stove (the package stated you should do this process from anywhere between 10-30 minutes)  There are a couple of decals on the shirt I didn't want to risk being removed with the dye, so I chose to error on the low end of the dye removal time and stopped at this time. 

Next, I rinsed the shirt and put it in the washer. 

The main point of this process was to even out the colors, so when I attempt to redye the fabric, it should be an even color, without the bleach spot areas being lighter than the rest.

Up next: trying to redye it.  I chose the Olive Green Rit dye, since I think (short of mixing dye colors) it would be the closest match to the original color of the shirt.

Click here to check out step II of my attempt to fix bleach spots