Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Hot Pink Pants




At around 4 PM today, I finally crawled out of the fifth circle of hell (also known as a sinus infection).  I am finally feeling better after spending my entire weekend (Friday night + Saturday + Sunday) in bed and until 1:00 on Monday when I had to put on patchouli oil to cover up the fact that I didn't even want to shower.  It really is amazing when you stop coughing and are able to breathe... how much more sleep you get.

So pink pants.  YEAH!  After my failed search of finding pink pants, in which even my grandma was trying to help, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  DIY has never really failed me except for when it comes to spray painting anything with laminate (ugh).  So, I ordered the same pants I have in black, but in white, from Lands' End Canvas and dyed them.

Dying is an easy process and there are far too many how-tos on how to do it.  I used the Jacquard iDye (even though I am totally a RIT girl, JoAnns didn't have the color I wanted).  Dying something is 10% dye, 20% knowing exactly the type of fabric you are dying 3% salt or vinegar if its a manmade fabric (oh, dyer joke right there haha oh I crack myself up) and 67% just having the balls to do it.


I normally do my dying in the washing machine, and I've never had the problem of left over dye staining my clothes.  But, I wanted to put together a few tips when it comes to dying.

1.  Know your fabric!  Cottons, add salt.  Manmade fabric? (polyester) add vinegar and use special dye.  Also, think about topstitching too, most likely the thread won't take the dye
2.  Read the directions on the dye.  Read the directions on the dye.  Read the directions on the dye.
3.  If you use the washing machine, time your agitation cycle prior to dying.  Yes, sit in your laundry room with a stop watch and see how long it takes.  This is very important as you will most likely have to run your agitation cycle a lot.
4.  Once you are done dying, run one empty washer cycle with hot water and detergent.  Then run one empty washer cycle with cold water, detergent, and bleach.  This should get your machine ready to wash your clothes again.

Shirt: jcrew, hand me down
Necklace: made by me, inspired by ...love Meagan's awesome tutorial
Belt: Gap (and oh so old)
Pants: Lands' End Canvas 100% cotton white pants, dyed pink
Shoes: Target (and only $6... hello summery black flats I've been wanting for two years)

7 comments:

  1. They turned out great! Thanks for the dying tips, I hadn't heard about the vinegar with manmade fabrics & want to try some DIY this summer!

    ReplyDelete
  2. GOR-GEOUS! Holy cow! You look fabulous in those pants. I love the shade of pink! SO fun and springy!

    Come take a look inside A Working Mom's Closet

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  3. Loving those pants!!

    Miranda
    www.indcfashion.com

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  4. Oh wow I would've never thought you dyed those yourself, they look so good. I might need to suck it up and try dying myself - I want some bright pants so bad!

    Holly
    http://hollykeenan.tumblr.com

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  5. Hello from Hong Kong. First time stopping by yr blog!! I love it. I would like to follow yr blog, do you mind follow mine as well?

    http://mrsvintagehk.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love,love,love your pants!!!You look amazing!
    http://chiccastyle.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love your pants! That is such a good idea! I've been wanting some red jeans and cannot find them- I think I'm just going to get a white pair and dye them! Problem solved! I can't believe I didn't think of that! Sorry about the sinus inf.- those suck!

    Lindsey Turner
    http://thriftandshout.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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