Alright well today’s project is one that just didn’t go the way that I thought at all. Let me just tell you, it’s not quite what we had in mind and took way longer and using much more materials than we had originally t
hought. So first things first, today we are dying jean shorts! WooHoo! It’s sounds exciting and fun and easy right! No, not so much.
You will need a pair of jean shorts, some bleach, a tub, some dye (we used rit), and a washer.
This is a project that all 3 of us started together, but was taking much longer than we had ever imagined, so I finished it by myself, but if I refer to we, it because we were all together for the first few steps.
Each of us had a pair of blue jeans, that either were shorts or that we cut to use as shorts, that we put in a large bowl together and poured bleach over the top. Now msitake #1 I think we should have done them all seperately and we probably would have had a better & quicker result.
Now sometimes I think when the 3 of get together, we assume that one of knows what we are doing and has done it before, but in reality we are all assuming that about the other and in the end, we really have no idea what we are doing. Thisproject didn’t seem that difficult, it seemed pretty straight forward, but as we soon found out, we should have done a little research first.
So anyway, on our first attempt we put the bleach in with the shorts and then added some water to make sure the shorts were all completely submerged. Well unfortunately not too much happened. Very slowly the shorts were getting lighter, but let me emphasize very slowly. In an attempt to speed things up we dumped that out started over, with a new bottle of bleach and a bowl and our shorts. This worked a little more quickly, but still very slow. Mo’s shorts were definitely bleaching out much more quickly than the other 2 pairs. So we then threw them in the washer and added even more bleach. We ended up having to leave the shorts over night to soak. When I checked them the next morning, Monique’s shorts were white and ready to go, but Coley’s and mine were another story, so I left them in for the rest of the day. That night I checked on the 2 remaining pairs of shorts, first I pulled out mine, they were finally looking the way I had imagined this project to go. Then I pulled out Coley’s shorts, and much to my dismay the minute I touched them they shredded. The fibers were completely fried. Once I got them washed and out with the other 2 this is what Coley’s shorts looked like . . .
At first I had just seen the 2 holes in the back and was thinking, oh that’s not too bad, I could stick a patch on them and make them really cute. Then I flipped them over and couldn’t believe what I saw . . . a GIANT rip and hole across the entire right leg! It was quite impressive really. So unfortunately we are going to have to try this project again on another pair of shorts for Coley.
Monique & my shorts were white and ready to be dyed. We used the RIT dye, from Hobby Lobby in the teal color.
I very carefully followed the instructions on the package using a large tub to soak the shorts in. My little helper was quite excited about this project being down on her level.
Once the dye was mixed and ready I poured it into the tub with our shorts. I did add a fair amount of extra water to make sure the shorts were fully submerged under the dye. After taking them out and rinsing each pair once I decided they weren’t dark enough, so I put them back in and let them soak for a total of 45 minutes. I know that seems like a long time, but I think because I had added extra water it took an extra long time to fully take.
After a good rinse and gentle wash the shorts turned out better than expected.
Unfortunately my house is very dark, so I was having a very hard time, getting you an acurate color of what they shorts really look like. However, if you come to the Junk in the Trunk Vintage Market on September 15th you will find us wearing our new shorts! But anyways they turned out a very nice minty green color. Monique’s turned out darker than mine, but they both turned out a nice shade of minty green.
So what do you think? Has anyone else started a project thinking it would be easy and then turned out taking you forever?! This one turned out, just took a lot longer than we thought. Well actually I take that back, Monique and my shorts turned out, while we did have one casualty with Coley’s shorts.
I hope you are all having as much fun as we are preparing for the MARKET!!!
Lindsey
