Sunday, July 20, 2008

Over-dyeing Shirts

I practically live in t-shirts, so I am always sad when one of my faves needs to be retired due to stains, or bleached-out spots which is otherwise in good shape. Thanks to the reminder of Wardrobe Refashion, I now try to over-dye them before giving up and sending the to the ragbag. If I like the result it is like getting a new shirt practically for free since I'm simultaneously dyeing fabric for quilting anyways.
This Ants! shirt was from an exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences and it is kind of styled to look like one of those cool 50's mutant monster movie posters. I love the baseball jersey 3/4 sleeves too. It was originally white with some red print in the logo design, so I threw it in the red dye box, and this is how it turned out. The black sleeves which were somewhat faded are now darker, but not exactly black which is a cool effect. I love how different the logo looks now with the red overdye. Plus it turned out good and mottled which is how I prefer my over-dyed clothes to turn out. A "subtle tie-dye", if there is such a thing!
This was one of my favorite t-shirts, was the right stretchiness without being baggy, and just a basic light grey which went with everything, but then it got bleach spotted, right in front (of course). So now it has some blue and green on top of the grey. I love how subtle the color changes are, and the contrasting stitching that remained undyed looks nice too.

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