In order to fulfil my Me-Made-May pledge (at the bottom of this post), I decided that I need some tights, stat! Unfortunately, a quick exploration of my stash revealed this as the most likely contender, and I didn’t think several pairs of hot pink tights would cut the mustard.
So, I did what most normal people do, I got out the dye, but I had enough fabric for 4 pairs of tights and I wanted them in all different colours. In order to maximise the fabric, I had to cut out the tights and then dye the pieces.
I really wanted a khaki colour for my first pair, so I carefully mixed green and brown, but then had a “moment” and added some red. These are the result.
I have to say that I love this colour and these tights will be a welcome addition to my wardrobe. But… they’re not khaki, so pair number two were dipped in just brown and green. During the process I could see the pink corrupting the colour, so figured a soupçon of black might do the trick. Here is the result. Again, I love the colour, but it’s not khaki!
Before I cut out and dyed the next pair, I decided to dye a couple of other pieces of knit fabric that I didn’t much care for.
The first piece was a wishy washy pale blue, quite unattractive. I threw it in the pot, and guess what? Khaki!! Sadly, most of the colour washed out when I rinsed the fabric, but I still love the resultant green/grey.
Clearly the pink base is too overpowering for the dye in my first attempts. Before the dye pot was completely exhausted I decided to give this fabric a dunk.
Whilst I love spots, I can’t get my head around white with orange spots. I’ve had this fabric out of the cupboard on a number of occasions, but always put it back, but the colour worked out brilliantly and now I cannot wait to turn this into something wearable.
Here they are together so you can see the difference in the colour
and all my experiments in one shot below. It’s hard to believe that the three on the right came from the same dye pot!
Now onto Me-Made-May 2016: My Pledge.
‘I, Sue Stoney of fadanista.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’16. I endeavour to wear only clothes made by me (with the exception of shoes) each day for the duration of May 2016’
Your dying experiments are very interesting. Can’t wait to see how your tights turn out. What pattern are you going to use? Oh and great to know that you will be participating in Me Made May too.
The pattern is Stylearc Laura Leggings and I drafted some feet. The fit of the first pair isn’t marvellous – baggy in the ankles, and a bit long, but I am working on it.
Love the first two colors! They will be excellent tights.
I hope so, Barbara!
These are great colours, so warm and vibrant. I’m looking forward to seeing how you style them next month 🙂
With your vast me-made wardrobe, it must be a breeze to fulfil your MMM pledge! For your tights, may I ask which kind of dye you used? Love the warm shades that came out!
these are dyed with Dylon for natural fibres. So, chemical dye rather than natural, but pretty easy to use. Thanks Hélène!
I’m being dim, I still don’t understand how you got all these out of the same dye pot. Did you only use the pink at the beginning. How did the brown ones come out so brown, and the spotty one so green. Confused 😣. I used to dye things but haven’t given it a go, and have some shocking pink I could do with converting into something more useable. Any suggestions. I’d love to see the tights? Regards, Trish.
Tights coming soon! The two Browns were from different dye pots but they both started as pink which corrupted the final colour. The greens began life as paler fabric which made the results quite different.
Towns, tights! Good work with the dye. I saw Carolines natural dying this week so it seems to be a good week for dying. She also makes tights, which is impressive, but something I hadn’t even considered making. Maybe next autumn.
You should give it a go, it’s fun!