We all have old clothing that we no longer wear or should no longer wear because they are old and beat up. But for some reason, it’s so hard to get rid of your favorites, no matter how rough shape they are in.
My white ruffled T-shirt is from Target and I love it. I have it in navy, too. The navy shirt has held up great, but I cannot say the same for the white. Although it’s hard to see in the photo, the shirt had seen better days. Plus, I’m just messy. Messy Jessie. A lot of the ruffles had dirt on them that I just couldn’t get out.
Instead of tossing the tee, I bought some Rit dye off of Amazon and changed the whole look it.
It’s important to follow the instructions on the dye bottle. I opted to dye my shirt in a bucket, not my machine. I didn’t want to deal with the cleanup of my washing machine after the fact and I have a million large buckets.
I wet my shirt and mixed the dye in the bucket per the instructions (half the bottle w/ 3 gallons of hot water).
Then, I added the shirt to the dye and let it soak it in for about an hour. The bottle suggests keeping it moving the entire time. This was the one instruction I didn’t follow.
When the shirt was finished soaking in the dye, I rinsed it out until the water ran clean.
Then, I threw it in the wash, all by itself. Don’t wash your newly dyed fabric with other clothing because it will run and turn your other clothing colors, too.
After the washer, I threw the tee in the dryer. And then I tried it on!
Voila! In about 2 hours, my shirt was brand new. You can’t see any of the old stains and it brightened up the shirt. You can also see that every third ruffle is a little darker. I hadn’t really noticed before, but there are two different materials in the ruffles. Fun!
Too cute! I like how it matches my phone, too.
So next time you don’t want to throw away an old shirt, think about using Rit dye to change the whole look.
A Smith of All Trades 