A Pinstrosity: Dress Dyeing Day

Just in case you thought we didn't have Pinstrosities happen still...

A while back I bought a dress online thinking I could maybe use it as a maternity dress (and if I got the guts up, for maternity pictures) and then later as a nice dressy dress. I fell in love with it online and couldn't wait to get it in my hands!

http://www.sammydress.com/product1898986.html

At the time there were no customer photos to show what it looked like "in real life", so I decided to go for it. It was only $13 after all. 

Well, it came, I opened it and I was quite disappointed. The lace and the skirt were two different colors of white! And this isn't a dress made for bosoms or a long torso. The waist sat right under my bust line, making it look more empire waist-ish than it was supposed to. And the skirt...see through, with a tiny little mid thigh built in slip. And I'm pretty sure the skirt isn't as full as the one pictured. It's flowy, but not that flowy. 

But it wasn't bad. So I put it in the closet and figured I pull it out in a few months and see if maybe I was just being overly picky. 

So I pulled it out this week and my reaction is still similar. Not as disappointed, but still not in love with it. 

And then I had an idea. 

I've been searching for a classy orange dress. Something with sleeves, and bosom coverage. Orange is not a color most think of as classy, and it's hard to make look classy. Mostly all I was finding were dresses designed to be bright, eye catching, and provocative. 

But, what if I took this dress and dyed it orange and added a built in slip?! It wouldn't help the waistline issue, but maybe it'd help make the rest look a little better. I was sure I had a solution. 

So I bought two bottles of Rit Dye and followed the instructions to a T. I couldn't wait to open the washer and see my gorgeous dress, all dyed....

PINK?!

The splashes on the washer lid were definitely orange, but the dress definitely was not. I'd even call this coral. But not orange.

Now I'm not against pink, and this was a lovely shade of pink. But it was like thinking you were getting a big gulp of water only to find out it was clear Kool Aid. Not what you were geared up for or wanted. I wanted orange.

So, I bought a bottle of Yellow Rit Dye and this time did a sink dye, hoping that would turn my pink dress into a lovely shade of orange. 

Well, I now am the owner of a

PINK dress. Which is a lovely shade. But it's not orange. :(

In fact...it's still basically the exact same shade as it was when it came out of the orange dye (below left is after the orange dye and below right is after the additional yellow dye bath).

The yellow dye didn't take at all! 

I'm still going to see what I can do as far as alterations and adding a slip, but this is one project that definitely didn't go how I wanted it to.

Luckily the dye did take evenly and it's not splotchy or weirdly colored. This could have been worse. But I'm still on the lookout for a classy orange dress.