Something blue...dyeing my crinoline

You know the saying...."Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a six pence in her shoe!" Hadn't heard of the last one? Me either, until recently, but when I heard of it, I decided I had to have it too. So I went on ebay and ordered myself a six pence. It's on it's way for $1.79.  Don't you just love the world wide web?

So, I'm still not sure what my something old and something borrowed will be, but I do have my something blue covered. I was inspired by pics like this:

How cool is that? I love the little hidden pop of color than can only be seen if you raise up your dress a little. I just love the look of it peeking out from under, and it makes for a fabulous photo op. 

Well, I've been thinking about dying my crinoline blue for a while now, but I hadn't really got the nerve to do it. I was afraid that A. It would ruin my crinoline. B. The dye wouldn't take to the material my crinoline was made of (nylon). or C. I would end up with a blue washing machine. Well, today I picked up a box of RIT dye and bit the bullet, and I'm so glad I did. 

The before pic:

The after pics: 

It did come out a little darker than I had planned, but I'm okay with it. Like I said, it's only going to peek out of the bottom of my dress a little - if I let it. And those white streaks in the first pic aren't really there, I think those are just from the flash.

The process:

1. Set your washer to the highest and hottest water setting. Let the basin fill up. 

2. Dunk your crinoline in the hot water to get it wet and then set aside. 

3. Premix the powdered dye in a little water in a separate glass container. 

4. Add the dye mixture to the water in the washing machine. 

 

5. Add your crinoline, shut the lid, and cross your fingers.

6. Easy, no? Here's the labor intensive/boring part. You have to stop the machine every 3 minutes to untangle your crinoline so you don't end up with a tye-dye effect. Not the bridal look we're going for. 

4. After 30 minutes of this, you set the machine to rinse (cold) and let the cycle finish. 

5. You can put it in the dryer on low, but I decided to hang mine to dry because I didn't want it to shrink.

*Immediately after you take the crinoline out of the washer, run the washer again on the hottest and longest cycle with detergent and 1 cup of bleach to ensure your next load of clothes doesn't come out in a lovely blue hue.*

**Oh, and wear plastic, disposable gloves so you don't end up with blue fingers. Not cute.**