Dying is Hard

     Recently(ish) I received 2 dresses from Holy Clothing in the color dragons blood. Online it looked like a beautiful red color. In person it looks very orange and I am not a fan at all. So I decided I would try my hand at dying the dresses. I looked into the correct way to do it, followed the instructions on the Rit website, and was incredibly disappointed because it did absolutely nothing. Partially because the instructions are inaccurate on the website and partially because the bucket dying method doesn't seem to be particularly good. I wanted to try the washing machine method, but I can't get my machine to stop while it's full and not drain. There is probably a way to do it, but I don't know what it is. 

     So the next option was the stovetop method. That required buying more dye, fixative, and a pot, since you can't use a dye pot for food. Once I had everything I needed I was ready to start. Though the pot was not large enough to do both dresses at the same time. 

    The first time around I used scarlet dye and it didn't seem to do anything. I figured I would try the wine and hope for a good (non orange) red color. 

     I filled the pot with the hottest tap water I could get, and put it on to start it heating further. 

     I added the salt, as instructed, and then I got to cooking my dress. I left it to heat for an hour, which is the max time the bottle says you should do it. I then dumped the dye water, refilled the pot with the hottest tap water, put it back on the stove and added the dye fixative. 

     The end result was a less offensive color, but still not a great color. Either red is super hard, Rit dye isn't very good, or I am missing a trick. But at least I have a less offensive color (nicer in person). 

    You can see by my comparison that there is a difference in color after dying one dress with the stove top method. Now I needed to dye the second dress. When I went to the store they didn't have any wine colored dye so I bought royal blue. I figured I would get some color that was less orange and might be interesting. 

     While the dress was in the pot it looked super dark. Black at times, though I knew it wouldn't end up black (I would not have been offended if it had). The tag looked like it might end up purple, and I was OK with that too. 

    It still looked super dark in the washing machine. I had no idea what color this was going to end up. 

     This was not at all what I expected! The pot was clearly not big enough for this large dress, and I ended up with a somewhat mottled color. But, strangely enough, I don't hate it. I might see about getting a larger pot and trying again to see if I can get the color more even, but I really don't hate how this came out. 

     Before anyone offers this advice; yes, I used the correct type of dye for the material the dresses are made from. Other than that I also followed the instructions carefully, though if anyone has any tips (other than a larger pot) I am open to ideas. This was definitely an interesting process, though time consuming. I don't think I will be doing it again, but you just never know.