The Dress that Wouldn't Dye

I have this pretty cute faux-wrap dress from Target that I've had for ages, but hadn't worn in a while because it was black and I had some other black dresses that I was wearing more often. It had been hanging in my closet, talking my winter sweaters on the shelf above, when I decided to try my hand at fabric dyeing.

I'd read an article in Lucky magazine*, about the "$2 Trick that will change your wardrobe".. It looked pretty easy, there's a JoAnns nearby, I had a dress I'd like to update. How hard could it be?

The answer? Much, much harder than I thought. My main issue is that the dress is 100% polyester, which is notoriously (thanks, Google!) hard to dye. The first time, I used RIT dye, which didn't work (no fault to the product). I did a bit of research and found out I needed a dye specially for polyester, which I found at JoAnns. I also found color remover, and decided to use that first, since the dress is black.

Well, long story short, the color remover didn't really work, so they dye wasn't able to show up on the black fabric. The tag, which was cream, is now a beautiful shade of purple. However, wearing the dress inside out was not what I had in mind. I don't know what I'll do next. I figure, for the materials cost, time and effort, I could sew something similar, rather than try to change the color of this dress. For now, the dress will go back in the closet, all ready to chat up that chunky, gray cardigan.



*Two things: I don't really like the direction the new editor is going, but I'm hesitant to cancel my subscription, because I like some of the skincare/makeup stuff and having a vague idea of what's fashionable and I don't think I'm ready for More yet.

Second, have you seen the Lucky Kids special ediiton? I am soooo not the target demographic because I don't know where to buy quail's eggs for my girls' bento box lunches (for that matter, they don't have bento boxes) and they're definitely not getting anything from Burberry or Michale Kors until they can pay for the drycleaning themselves.