Dyed Purple shorts!

My parents found some cute shorts for the Clever Girl at a consignment shop.  They were adorable!  They were denim (great fabric for kiddo shorts) and had sparkly bling on the pockets.  What is better?  Oh, but they were WHITE DENIM.  Is there any reason to even manufacture shorts in white?  In any size?  I think not.  The entire world could go without white shorts.  That is just my opinion.  But certainly white shorts on 3-4 year old kids is just ridiculous.  So, I dyed them!  Holy mackerel, this has opened up a whole new world of ideas for me! 

Once upon a time, the shorts were white.  I neglected to take a picture of the white shorts, so you'll just have to envision them with me.  They were not a bright white, as they were at a consignment shop and thus had likely been worn and washed a lot, plus white clothes never stay white for long, do they?  Anyway, the shorts were white and I decided they would be prettier in purple.

So, I dyed them.  If you have any random white clothing, or even light colored clothing that you think would look better another color, give this a try!  I used tips from MADE for instructions.  (By the way, if you haven't checked out that blog, you should.  She has great ideas!)  Anyway, here is what you need:

• Rit (or another brand of your choice) fabric dye, liquid or powder (I used liquid)
• salt
• a big bowl or bucket
• rubber gloves
• a wooden spoon you don't care about
• hot water
• items of clothing/fabric to dye

This could be a big mess, so just do it right in the kitchen sink.  If you  had a utility sink this would be perfect!  Turn on  your hot water, get it as hot as you can, and fill your bowl or bucket.  Pour in some salt.  This helps to set the dye.  I used a tablespoon or so.  Pour a glug or so of dye into the bowl with the water and salt.  The amounts are vague because it kind of depends on the size/quantity of the clothing you are dying.  Since I was dying only one pair of child's shorts, I used only about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bottle of dye.  The bigger/more clothing you have, the more dye you will want to use.  And a bigger bowl, more salt, etc.  Make sense?

Ok, stir up your dye mixture until the salt is dissolved and everything is well blended, like jello.   Now thoroughly soak your clothing/fabric with water.   You want every part of it wet.  This helps the dye adhere more evenly.  You an wring it out if you want, just make sure all parts are wet.  Put your rubber gloves on and plunge the clothes into the bowl and stir it with your wooden spoon. 

You can leave the clothing in the dye for as long as you want, making sure to stir it every 15-20 minutes.  If you forget and an hour goes by, don't sweat it!  Just go give it a good stir.  Above you see the clever girl's shorts after about 20 minutes!  The purple was starting to happen but there were still lighter parts in the seams and such.

I let the shorts stay in the dye for about an hour and a half.  After a while I noticed that the shorts weren't really getting any more purple and they appeared to be uniformly dyed.

Empty the bowl of dye down the drain and rinse out the clothing with fresh water.  You don't need to do a fantastic job of this, just give it a good rinse.  Wear your gloves for this!  Put the clothes back in the bowl and carry it to wherever your laundry machine might be.  The bowl will protect your floors from getting drips between the sink and washing machine!  It would really hurt my feelings if I ended up with little purple drops all over our wood floors!   Plop the clothes in the washing machine and set it for your smallest load possible.  I set mine for an extra rinse as well.  Dry them in the drier and you are done!  You now have colorful clothes that used to be white!  Yippee!

I suggest washing the clothes a couple of times with like colors just in case, but these shorts have not bled at all.

The Clever Girl loves her "new" purple shorts.  The bling on the back pockets is now even more "blingy" and the color turned out really pretty.  I would show you how the back pockets look on her but when I asked her to show me the back pockets the pictures just looked way to sassy for publishing on the blog.  So you'll just have to take my word for it.  They are cute!

Hmmm...  What should I dye next???