How to Dye Over Faded Print Dress | Thriftanista in the City

5.17.2017

How to Dye Over Faded Print Dress

Dyeing is super easy diy way to perk up a thrift store find. I found an old Jacquard iDye packet in my craft stash and used it to dye over a floral print dress that had some fading.

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I'm a sucker for free shipping promotions. I abandon virtual carts all the time when I get to checkout and see that shipping charge. Something about shipping cost takes away the impulse shopping high. I get especially annoyed when the shipping is higher than what I had planned to purchase.

So when I caught a free ship code (when you spend $25) at Angel's Vintage Boutique on Instagram, I visited the store to see what kind of goodies I could find.

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The vintage floral dress was one of the finds. I liked the shape.  I liked the faux sarong front. It was my size. All good things. The fall foliage and colors weren't really speaking to me. It also looked a bit faded. It was $5 so I took a chance on it.

As I suspected in the photo, the color was off. It was wearable but a bit drab. I do believe this dress was somebody's favorite in the 80s. It has seen many turns in the washing machine.

over dye a floral print dress

I've dyed white and near white clothes before but had never attempted to dye over a print. I was a little nervous about what would happen with all those colors. I knew the dark colors would likely remain the same given I was using pink dye. The zipper and thread would stay the same color because they were likely polyester and would not absorb the dye. The only real change would come to the light pinkish tones in the fabric.

Pink is the only dye I had on hand and since there was pink in the dress, I felt like it could work.

I went with stovetop method for dyeing. I'm always afraid of splashing dye all over the laundry room and staining the machine pieces inside. I let the dress simmer in the boiled pink water for 30 minutes then rinsed the dye out in the washing machine.

floral print dye diy

I love how it turned out. I thought my dye would be a lighter colored pink but it was a vibrant punchy hot pink instead. I'm glad I went for it. Even the dark colors look brighter.

dye over floral print dress

 Have you tried an over dye on prints?

What I Wore: vintage All That Jazz dress (Angel's Vintage Boutique) - black Vince Camuto pumps (off 5th ave) - handmade beaded earrings (Kenya)

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