Thursday, January 12, 2012

Totes Tie-Dyeing

For reasons that are far beyond my understanding, there is one photo in the Bust DIY Guide to Life that calls out to me like a beacon: the tie-dyed tights. Every time I was asked to pick an image--whether it was for the catalog, promotions, or even the back cover of the book--I always turned to this photo. Why do I love this photo so much? Is it the pink and black against the blue? Is it the toes that point in? The inoffensive flats? No, I realized, it's the actual tie-dyed tights. I really really like them.

It took me awhile to come to this conclusion. You see, 99% of the time, tie-dyeing is pretty icky. It is typically presented on baggy t-shirts (which I hate) and in a bunch of primary colors (which I'm not that crazy about). I can't in good conscience make fun of the type of people who are famous for wearing tie-dye, since I was, after all, a person who briefly yet decidedly did not shave her legs just one decade ago (I referred to my hairy calves as my "man socks"). But even in my hairy leg days, I just wasn't into the tie-dye thing.

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For the record, some technological glitch occurred several months ago, and the entirety of this blog post following the previous paragraph was deleted. (So yes, until today--September 23, 2012--if you went to look at this post, you would read about my hairy hippie legs and think the post ended there.) To rectify that problem, I will attempt to (briefly) re-create what the original post said. Or what I "think" it said. It went something like this:

When my friend Stacie got married, she bought all her bridesmaids a cream-colored cashmere scarf. I wore it a whole bunch and it got dirty (coffee drips on the subway, I believe?). So I decided to tie-dye it to hide my filth. 
First I folded the scarf accordion style from short end to short end. Then I tied rubber bands around it, equally spaced.
I put a bunch of RIT dye in a pot (pearl gray, maybe?) and I think I boiled it. And then I put the scarf in the pot.
When it came out of the dye pot and I clipped the rubber bands off, it looked like this! I was VERY excited.
Then I wore the scarf. The end!

Note, I think I mentioned in my original post that I was considering tie-dyeing my wedding dress, and I wanted to let you all know that I did not.

THE END. (Again.) 

12 comments:

  1. I can't believe I'm writing this, but I want to go home right now and tie-dye the shit out of my closet.

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  2. I am so glad Melanie just tweeted this link because A, I'm inspired to go on a real tie-dyeing tear, and B, I can't wait to use "inoffensive flats" in conversation.

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    1. Ha! Glad to have been the one to add "inoffensive flats" to your vocab! :)

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  3. I seriously can't stop thinking about things I could tie-dye. Linen napkins, a flowy voile tank top, my wedding dress. OK, not my wedding dress. But I am secretly hoping I stain my white Ralph Lauren vintage party dress this summer and simply *have* to tie-dye it. It has eyelets! It would be so cute!

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  4. I love to dye things! I've never done tie-dye, but I had these cream wrist warmers that I knit up that ended up looking like little casts on my hands. Instead of walking around like I sustained multiple hand injuries, I dyed them purple, and they look fantastic. The color is *much* lighter than i expected to be (isn't it always that way), but I love it.

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    1. LT, I love that story. Little wrist casts! You are hilarious. Sounds like they were the perfect candidate for a dye-job. And I totally know what you mean about them always turning out lighter than expected. When the fabric is wet in the dye pot it always looks terrifying dark, but it's deceiving. We must resist the temptation to pull out the fabric!

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  5. Where in the world did you find RIT dye??? I've been hunting it for years in these parts (mostly to do just what you did -- rescue my coffee-stained clothes). Never seen it. I thought they stopped producing it once the 90s ended.

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    1. Ha! Nope, RIT dye still exists, my friend. I found mine in the fashion district in NYC, which is not surprising, but I've also seen it in most fabric shops. Joann's? Michael's? Or buy it online! http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?CATID=cat3269&PRODID=prd10751

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  6. Oh -- and AB, is me, Stacie.

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