Arte Es Vida

I bought a little white Mossimo skirt at Target not too long ago, wore it one time, and then my husband (trying to be helpful) hung it on a skirt hanger while it was still wet.  Wet cotton + the metal part of the hanger didn’t mix and it left a big rust spot on the skirt that wouldn’t come out.

While Wal-Mart does carry Rit Dye, they have a more limited selection of colors than a craft store does, so I went to Michael’s in search of a dye color that would cover/blend in the rust and would look decent with the rest of my wardrobe.  I found a Cocoa Brown that turned out really lovely.

 Much of the stitching didn’t take the dye which gave it a bonus finished look that I really dig.  I’m wearing the skirt today with a white tshirt and it looks adorable.  The entire save cost me less than 2 dollars!

While Rit Dye suggests that when using darker colors such as this you use twice as much dye.  I usually just use a cup of salt as a mordant and a dab of laundry detergent as they suggest.  I’ve used several darker colors and one packet of dye has always been enough.  However, I am not typically going for the darkest end of the spectrum and rarely leave my cloth in the dye pot for the full 30 minutes either.  I think this skirt simmered for about 10 minutes before I got the shade I wanted!

 Dye jobs are a good way to cover stains if you can use a dye that is a similar shade to the stain itself.  I’ve tryed overdying stained items with a different color even though it was much darker and the stain remained as glaring as a flashlight even after the piece was dyed.  I’ve had mixed results using their Uncolor product first, but that’s another pre-dying option.