So I have this beautiful wedding dress from 3 years ago that has been sitting in the closet untouched, unlooked at... So...I wanted to do something different. As you can see from the pictures, it's not really a dress you can just dye and wear it out.
You like the dead plant in the middle picture?! haha I don't have the greenest of thumbs!
The embroidery and beading make it a little too fancy for your typical wear. That's why I decided to cut (gasp!), dye (gasp!), and recreate my wedding dress into a cocktail dress!!! Yay!!!
Cutting up my wedding dress!
I slowly seam ripped all the threading for the beading and flowers.
I made sure to measure out the amount of chiffon I had to ensure the pattern I picked would use what I had and not need much more. Some patterns I looked at needed about 5 yards! I only had about 2.
Dyeing:
Of course my dress was 100% polyester, which is such a "no-no" for dyeing. I tried reading as much as I could about how to attempt to do this with RIT dye (since I didn't feel like waiting for the polyester dye to ship and come in) and since I'm really bad of following instructions!
Well, everything says NOT to do this...hmm... Yup I'm going to try it! Now I don't recommend this unless this is an item a) you don't care about (which I love my dress, but I know I'll never wear it again) and b) you'll never wear it the way it is. The smart thing to do is buy the dye meant for your fabric type, but here is how I went about dyeing my dress the WRONG way).
I gathered all of my supplies:
- Liquid RIT dye in Aquamarine
- Rubber gloves
- Stockpot
- 1 cup vinegar
- glass bowl to put dyed clothes/fabric in to transfer to sink
- 1 tbsp. laundry detergent
- Something to stir your brew with (I used a paint stick)
1. I boiled the water first then added in the whole bottle of dye (doubled the intensity for the 1 gallon water because I knew it wasn't going to dye as easily).
2. Say a little prayer/rain dance or whatever will help you to make this work and put in your fabric (ahhh!!!!).
3. Set the time for 5 minutes and stir away. It's a great way to get an arm workout!
4. When the timer goes off, pour in the vinegar and laundry detergent.
5. Set the time for at least 25 more minutes and stir constantly. I left the stove on so the water continued to stay hot while I was dyeing the fabric. When I would pull up the fabric it didn't appear like it worked. I was disappointed, but figured I could just try with poly dye...
6. When you feel that you have reached the dye intensity you want, transfer clothes to the sink and rinse first with warm water, then with cold water.
7. When the water runs clear, wash your clothes in the washing machine (yes I still did this even though everyone said the dye will just wash out!)
8. Hang to dry and here is what I got!
In the picture it looks a lot lighter, but it is a sky blue color. It's not the color I was looking for but I'm hoping that when I get the lining for the dress, I can alter the color a little bit. If not, I'll try dyeing it again.
Some things I would have done differently:
- I would have added in more dye (probably a green color to make it more teal)
- I would have dyed it for longer. Who knows if it would have gotten any darker, but I did the bare minimum because I really thought it wasn't working.
Like I said, I don't recommend you doing this on any item, make sure it's something you don't care about or try to test it on similar material. Polyester is really finicky. The threading in a tank top I threw in the pot didn't dye at all, but the cotton tank top did, so it really depends on the material.
Now to turn this fabric into this!!
Let me know if you have any questions!! I can't wait to share my final product with you!
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