dying clothes

I had all of these white shirts that I was going to toss before moving. They were all grimy, stained, and pretty much unwearable. How long do whites stay pristine? I am not a Bleach Queen (really bad for the enviro), so my whites tend to fade pretty fast and end up looking totally shabby. I didn't even really think these were fit to go to Goodwill because they were pretty unsightly. Note to self: no more balsamic dressing or hot cocoa while wearing white. Anyway, I felt pretty bad about it because none of these shirts had holes in them and they were all from pretty expensive stores. Not to mention that I really liked them all. So I decided to try dying them a different color so that I could keep them. I figured it was my way of saving some dough and reusing something that I already had.

I imagined saving up all of my beet water or dying them with yellow turmeric or something natural. But then I remembered that scene from Dodie Smith's I Capture The Castle where the family dyes all of their clothes green and ends up with a whole emerald-colored wardrobe, so I decided that buying black Rit dye might be more versatile and probably a little less obvious.

It totally worked and the shirts all have this beautiful, mottled, soft grey color (which is what I was hoping for).

It worked so well that I decided to take a set of sheets that we received as a wedding gift (so they aren't even that old!) that has slowly and mysteriously turned from light blue to white and dark brown in places -- totally gross -- and bleach them white (yeah, I know...once a year while saving something from the landfill is okay, I guess) and then dye them purple. Breathing new life into old things feels even better than buying something new!