Day Forty Two

Sooo... Today I dyed some jeans. (The second pair I altered). I dyed them purple!

I just dyed over the already existing blue with its fading and everything, trying to get a look like this:

It seemed to go well. I followed all the directions and checked around online to see if people had other helpful tips. I used two dye packets because I wanted them pretty dark. After about 45 minutes in the dye I rinsed the jeans and put them in the washer. I was pretty confident I'd done everything right... so I was surprised when I pulled them out of the wash.

For one thing they weren't very dark, and I knew they'd get even lighter once I put them through the dryer. So that was pretty disappointing.

THEN, on the front were all these blotches and streaks where it had barely been dyed! I was shocked! I don't know how this happened... I thought I stirred them around in the dye plenty, but I guess it wasn't enough.

So now I guess I'm going to have to re-dye them. I think that if I try to do it again as it is, the lighter spots will still show up, since the entire jeans will get darker at the same rate (So the parts that did get dye will get darker as well as the un-dyed spots, so those spots will still end up lighter. If that makes any sense at all). What I'm going to have to do is bleach the entire thing white and then redye, which will end up with a look more like this:

A more solid purple, without the darks and lights created by the blue behind it. I'm ok with this too, and I may end up liking it more, but it just means more work and having to wait longer for my purple pants! I'm also worried about the bleach weakening my poor jeans.

I'm just so bummed that this didn't work out today. Sad face.