Passionately Ashley: Dye Dammit Dye!

So I've been bitten by the RIT Dye bug. I first dyed a pair of white shoes a lemon yellow over a year ago and have come back into it recently after realizing no local fabric store sells navy blue knit- wth?! Thanks to Jill @ Refashionista I decided to DIM- do it myself. There's only one hang up though. I refuse to dye in my washing machine. My washing machine is my baby and I refuse to do anything to it out of the ordinary.

After some research and lots of posts about how Navy failed- I decided to actually follow Rit's directions- Stove Top Method. My white knit material turned out a perfect Navy Blue. Funny how following the directions actually worked!

Here's my arsenal that I built for the Stove Top Method:

What you see is a stock pot, a spoon and pair of gloves. Keep this in mind: If you use a pot you cook with- you have to sanitize it with bleach after using it for dye. Rit's Rules- not mine.

I bought my stock pot at Goodwill for $4 (The regular one not the Clearance) and the spoon is from Dollar Tree. The gloves are courtesy of Daddy- thanks Daddy!

Alright, now let's get on with the tutorial:

Black Rit Dye (Ooooh- Spooky! Well, it really isn't. If you can master Navy Blue, Black is pretty darn simple, too.)

Here are the two test items I chose:

Yowza that's a busy. Eesh... but nice comfy material!

Another man's t-shirt that I really liked. All except the spots all over it. Look closely.

Alright, now down to business! But first- completely soak the item you're about to dye in warm water. Ring and shake out so that's it's loose. (Per Rit. Again, I've been successful with their directions so just humor them, okay?) Now add to the dye bath.

First up was the skirt. Now I didn't want to change the stripes, I just wanted to tone down the busyness of it. So I decided I wasn't going to give it a long bath. Just enough for the white color to change to gray. Follow your instinct- it's usually spot on.

Skirt in the bath:

It's not as scary as it seems. After about a minute and a half in the bath I felt pretty good knowing that it was done.

Now rinse completely where there is no more dye coming off, I'm serious when I say this. Unless you want a mishap in your washing machine. Then it's all on you. And no rinsing in plastic bathtubs; it will stain. Porcelain you *might* have better luck with but do it at your own risk. I prefer a stainless kitchen sink.

Ooohhhh- I like!

Next the t-shirt. I decided since those dark stains were refusing to come out, I had a feeling if I tried navy blue dye the spots would still be there so I figured black and hope it goes well. Ha! Take that stubborn stains. I'll show you.

Do everything the same except let the shirt stay in the bath for a good 15 minutes. Stir constantly.

Take out and do the same as the skirt: Rinse. Start unballing it and voila!

Screen printing isn't affected by dye.

Now, go wash the items in the washing machine. Use other dark clothes that can take any minute bleeding (I'm paranoid, what can I say?) and when done washing hang to air dry.

I'm serious when I say this to everyone- dying is not hard. It's scary yes because I was initially worried that it was going to turn out horrendous. But it's really not, especially when I'm using items I found at the Goodwill Clearance Center for pennies. Now I will wear both without any hesitation.

See?