Weekend success: DYED jeans!
Like the rest of the world, I've been jonesing for some springy colored jeans this season. I have my red jeans (also upcycled), but I wanted either mint or yellow, or maybe coral, for spring.
In case you don't know what I'm talking about... here are some faves from my "Red jeans and brights" Pinboard! Plenty more inspiration there if you're interested...
These next two from Forever 21 are only $15.80! But, sold out in stores in ALL the colors. I tried.
After striking out at the stores, my plan was to buy some white jeans at Goodwill and dye them myself. I soon realized two flaws in this plan: 1) White skinny jeans are NOT common Goodwill donations at this point because they're still relatively new as a fashion trend, I guess... and 2) They don't make MINT dye. Coral is also hard to find. (This caused me to realize something else--I don't trust myself at mixing dye, like artists may!).
So, I got a little adventurous. I figured if I could find some very light grey or blue skinnies, I could try to make them mint-ish, but that was a little risky, too. So, Plan B. I found these white flares and made them into skinnies. The "before":
I've done the skinnification process before (here), although that's not how I do it anymore. Now I turn the jeans inside out and lay them on the floor, and lay a pair of skinnies that I know fits on top, then pin. On these, I also removed the funky belt loops and big white buttons, and gave them a regular jeans button.
I poked around for dye at some art stores, and found this beautiful array...
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| Via my Instagram |
...but got overwhelmed by the idea of knowing how much to use, mixing dyes, buying soda ash (whatever that is), etc... all in my kitchen sink! I know there are books and other resources out there on dying--FaveCrafts just came out with one--and hopefully I'll learn someday soon. But for now, I don't know how to mix or get too creative.
So I decided, yellow it is!
I used a packet of Dylon that I got at JoAnn with a coupon for $1.50. And the jeans were $3.50 (the sale color!) at Goodwill, so this project was a pretty reasonable expense for a trend.
I dyed them in my sink, which was not ideal because it was hard to stir them perfectly. I also realized I probably should have bought two packets of dye for such a large garment--may have given me a more even color, and definitely a brighter one. Luckily I was open to whichever shade of yellow worked out--the J.Crew/Anthro soft yellow, or the brigher, almost neon sunshine yellow.
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| Via my Instagram |
Here's what came out!
If you looked really close, you'd see that it didn't dye perfectly evenly, and that there are some splotchy places reminiscent of a tie dye job. But I think I'm going with more of the soft, romantic, Anthro-ey yellow jean look--so maybe it works. Or at least isn't as obvious!
Do any of you have pastel jeans this spring?!? Would love to hear your outfit ideas!