Mauve-a-licious

My recent trip to the craft store saw me bring home some:

zips, ric rac, interlock, buttons and some dye.

I've never ever done any dye-ing before so I read up on a few posts about it.

Most of it sounded pretty straight forward. Heat up some water, dissolve the dye and add the fabric. I normally feel very apprehensive before starting anything and therefore procrastinate every single project before I actually get started. This time I thought I'd bite the bullet after a few days of seeing the dye on my table.

Here's what I did with the dye : Rit Dye : Colour Mauve.

I pre-washed her cardigan in warm water and rinsed it in hot (no softener!)

Then I dissolved the RIT dye in 2 cups of boiling water into a 2ltr bucket.

I added 3/4 cup of salt (it said 1 cup but I was running out) and added 1 tablespoon of Radiant laundry detergent (as per the instructions on the packet).

After more swirling I boiled more hot water and filled up the bucket almost half way.

You want the water to cover the item but not wash out the dye colour.

Then I dumped in the wet cardigan and swished away. I initially thought I was suppose to swish for 30mins but after reading it again it said "until you get desired colour" up to 30mins.

Ahhh, well, that makes more sense.

At first it was a deep purple colour and looked rather lovely. I wanted a pinkish hue though. I swished for about 10mins though, checked on the roast, swished again and then ran some hot water to rinse it out in the sink.

It says to rinse until water runs clear but I doubt that would happen and wanted to save water so I rinsed until it was a light purple colour (the water).

I took it out and decided to dry it on an old canvas apron and use pins to lightly block it into shape. I warn you that this is NOT the way to BLOCK. This is my way of blocking on the fly.

A proper way is from this tutorial from Alicia Paulson. She makes it look so much more fun and professional.

So, I left it to dry in the shade and I keep peeking on it every now and again admiring the colour in the lace work. It's more of a purple than pinkish-mauve colour on the packet.

However I like it and it goes with this dress I just bought for her.

I could see that there was a slight colour variation where the different coloured wool was used. It seemed that the difference in beige-ness of the wool did affect the way the dye took to the original colour. It's a design feature (thanks Cherri). A mark of a mama-made item.

So now I just have to crochet a little beige flower and add some pearl buttons and it shall be revealed. In time for a Spring birthday. Yay.