I have been excited to finally begin making some dresses for the girls - both of whom love to wear dresses, both of whom have no decent winter dresses.
I took out the length of light but hard wearing denim I had spontaneously purchased some months back, with its girly floral embroidery. I had asked for 2 metres of the 150cm width fabric, knowing that it would be enough to get two sleeveless dresses for my girls.
And then it happened. As I began to work with the fabric I noticed my fingers gradually beginning to turn blue. Shrugging with no real concern, I wandered off the the laundry with the fabric in my arms and began to rinse it. And then I rinsed it some more. And some more. And still some more. I lost count of how many times I dunked that blue fabric into the clear water, watching it turn blue, then starting again waiting for the water to run clear. I know it was more than ten times, possibly up to twenty, before my water saving conscience took over.
And now I sit here sighing, realising that if I can't find a trick to get this (obviously cheap and nasty) fabric to hold its colour I will have to set out to find something else with which to make my girls' dresses. It wouldn't bother me but for the fact that I was going to put some coloured panels in the dress into which the blue dye, no doubt, would run. And the fact that I would be destined to hand wash the dresses for the next 50 washes. And that defeats the whole purpose of having practical, machine washable, easy to care for dresses.
*sighs*
Must be time for a cup of tea.
Hi! There's a product you can get to fix dye (I've forgotten its name) but you should be able to get it from a craft store. Otherwise try boiling it with some salt in the water.
ReplyDeleteI tried the salty water trick and that didn't seem to work, but perhaps I was a little too impatient with it. I'll look out for the other product you have mentioned - thankyou :).
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