Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Banishing Boring Beige

The BEFORE photo - as in before dyeing, and before I could find the matching belt

I've been following along and watching all of Jess's bear dyeing adventures lately, and it suddenly reminded me that I had my own little dyeing project hanging around in my wardrobe, just waiting for some inspiration to hit.

It's been yonks and years since I've tried it. In fact the last thing that I dyed, was a rather unfortunate pair of high waisted jeans while I was as Uni.  Does anyone else remember when coloured denim was cool...ahem? Those jeans met an unfortunate end after my foot was run over by a taxi outside a nightclub (but that's a story for another day)...where was I?

Oh yes the beige dress!


I picked this lovely dress up at a factory outlet on Smith St many moons ago. At the time, I didn't bother to try it on, I just took it home.
It wasn't until I saw this photo of me wearing it a BBQ in 2007, that I realised that beige is a very very very very bad colour against my pasty white skin tone.

The poor dress was banished to the back of the wardrobe, never to see the light of day again.... until 2010.

Jess emailed me through all of her pot dyeing on the stove top secrets (I really didn't want to ruin my nice white and shiny front loader), but I still chickened out and asked Bec if she would help me out for the first go.


My original intention was to go to with a nice dark browny grey colour, but when I got to Becs house, she had a huge selection of dyes to choose from, and I just couldn't go past the ruby red!


The slip that is worn under the dress took the dye really well and is a nice bright red....


The dress is a blend of cotton and synthetics, and I love how the dye has actually given the stripes a much greater effect in the way that the dye has taken to the fabric.



I had to include an action shot of Bec doing all the hard work while I sat at the kitchen bench drinking coffee and snapping photos...hee hee

I think I'm going to have to wear my newly dyed dress today (over a pair of pants - its only going to be 23 degrees).

Thanks Jess and Bec for all your help!

38 comments:

Michelle said...

Oh Cam...
That dress is just gorgeous...
Your new dying ways are giving me some new found hope for some very boring beige "op shop" finds of late...
Great post!!!
HMMMM Yes I too remember the days of "coloured" jeans....Mine were red...lol...

Jennie said...

Its amazing how different it makes the dress look! It looks completely different, not just the colour! Great job!!!!

PaisleyJade said...

Wow - I am amazed at how much better the dress looks!! Great idea - I think I should have a hunt through my clothes now!!

Cath @ chunkychooky said...

Ahhh yes coloured jeans- remember the brown ones, and the dark green ones...

Sarah-Jo said...

oooo its so pretty! so very very pretty! well done Cam and Bec XXX

Jo's Place said...

Oh wow, it looks so different. Love the new colour and how the stripes really stand out now. I bet this will become a favourite no matter what season :)

Jennifer Rose said...

looks like a completely different dress. very cool :)

Marg said...

Love the new colour, it looks so different, very pretty!

Chasing Purple Dreams said...

OOOH very brave. Great results, I love the way it picked out the stripes – that colour will be sensational on you. I have only tried dying once, a pair of army surplus cargo pants – you guessed it purple! I cut them off and they were my festival shorts (who am I kidding they were my go everywhere shorts, I lived in them for years!).

Kate said...

Wow, look at the difference it made to the whole look of the dress. Enjoy wearing it now.

mel @ loved handmade said...

Wow, I was thinking in the beginning I really like it beige...but the red looks fantastic!! great idea to bring those disguarded pieces back to life, enjoy wearing it today!

Julie said...

Nice re-vamp.

The Creative Beast said...

those are great results!

i just love how dyes can bring an old garment back to life =-)

Nikki said...

I've been dyeing things, too. Very satisfying (and sometimes surprising) results!

I'll look forward to seeing your red dress today!

Leonie Guld said...

Fantastic job. LOVE the color!!

Miss Muggins said...

what a difference a new colour makes. From blah to blooming beautiful!

Ellieboo said...

Wow - what a result, it looks fantastic. You have inspired me - I would love to do some dyeing

I Purr-Furr to Craft said...

absolutely lovely, well done!

Mark said...

That is one heck of a transformation! Gorgeous Dress!!

Michelle said...

I lvoe the transformation! Isn't it funny how we never reaslie something until we see a photo of ourselves? I always loved brown. Wore it every second day, loved, loved, loved wearing brown. Then I wore a brown linen dress to my nephew's christening, and in all the family photos I'm invisible! Because of what I was wearing! It was a lovely dress too :( I suppose red-brown hair, olive skin and brown clothes aren't that complementary to each other. Now I just wear red, all the time ;-)

Glad you got a great result from your dying!

Julia said...

What a difference a dye makes!

Rie said...

No way! It looks like a completely different dress! What a fantastic transformation!

Sarah said...

That is a great looking transformation!

Fiona said...

It looks completely different - wish I had as much success dying stuff!!

Cathie said...

way better Cam!
did you put your red shoes on too?
have a great day

sewfunky said...

loving how it turned out! Awesome.

Kelly Casanova said...

Love the colour!

MooBear Designs said...

It's a totally new dress! Wozzers!! The pot of boiling water being dashed to the sink... that scares me!!

xo Steph

Stacy Kraus McDonald said...

OPh, you must show it to us on you.... the color looks lovely!

The Essess said...

OMG the colour looks fantastic Cam.. I love it, just shows what can be done with some imaginationand good friends to help... I had a little laugh because I rememeber you dyeing jeans and being run over by a taxi, luckily intoxication at the time saved you from too much injury!lol... Cool dress maybe you should wear it to the Daylesford Makers Market...?

Snooze said...

great job becs and cam ... the new colour is gorgeous.

Trudi - Me and Ewe said...

Fab Cam - and no beige in sight! Great colour for your skin tone - maybe you should wear it to NCB next week to show it off...

Tanya said...

great dye job. I loved my far too bright green denim jeans with a high waist which was slightly elasticised at the waist...I wonder what ever happened to them!

Mookah Studio said...

Mmm.....yep i had some of those coloured denim jeans too - mine were green. I had a bit of a green fetish back in those days but that has long gone and is now replaced with red.

Love the dress, what a fantastic transformation.

bec said...

Wow, it looks great! I agree with Sel, wear it to Dayelsford, then i'll get to see it. What a spunk doing the dyeing har har- I do look a bit frantic racing to the sink, though. It was only because of my toothpick arms, people, can't lift saucepans!

Liesl said...

Bec is certainly the dye-master! Your dress looks ace. Red will look fabulous on you.

Tania said...

Talk about breathing new life! You'd have to have had a skip in your step wearing that little number today...

Unknown said...

The dyeing idea is brilliant - such a pretty result.

"Only" 23deg I hear you say???? We've yet to see 15deg this week.. it hit 21deg last Saturday for the first time since, um, er, about June last year.... well this is the UK! te he.. ;)