How to dye ALL the things!

I have been binge-crafting lately, and my current spastic project is dying lingerie with good old fashioned RIT DYE. I have been posting about it on facebook for the past few weeks, and have had several questions about it. I agreed to write out a basic step-by-step tutorial on how to correctly dye your things.

You are going to need:

A large pot

A super awesome color of RIT Dye in a box. (I use the powder dye)

Some Salt

White/light colored things you want to dye.

A large spoon you can happily stain.

1. Fill your big giant pot full of water, and dump about 1/3 cup of salt in it. Bring that bad baby to a boil! When that water is boiling good and hard, dump your color packet (or colors if you are blending.) into the pot.

2. Get your fabric items a little wet before placing them into the boiling dye bath. I can usually fit about 2 slips, 2 bras, some gloves and a few pairs of underwear in each pot. You can add less if you prefer, and its best to practice on something that is not very valuable to you.

3. Stir like crazy. Set a timer for about 25 minutes, and stir your witches brew often. I tend to give a good swirl and re-arrange everything in the pot every 5 minutes, this will ensure EVEN color. You want even color, I promise.

4. Beware of boil over! I have to blow on mine a lot. You could just turn the heat down a little, but really, who wants to be responsible? Not I!

5. When your timer goes off, transfer the pot to your bathtub. Start by running warm water over the pot, draining it out every so often. Gradually turn the water colder, and colder until you are rinsing in the coldest water possible. Rinse until the water turns clear.

6. Squeeze the excess water out of the items, and either lay flat to dry or cheat and use your dryer. I like to use my dryer, I am very lazy.

7. Admire your amazing pieces of dyed goodness.

So far my favorite colors have been the Fuchsia pink, and the Purple (I mixed about 1 Tablespoon of red into it, it made a lovely Plum!) I have dyed bras, blouses, underwear, girdles, slips, gloves, and even a purse.

Caught the Fever

Wow, I have disappeared here in blog land. It was a busy weekend, that turned into a sick week. So here I am finally able to update.
Friday night were through our Fashion Show event to raise money for charity, it went off seamlessly and we raised nearly $1000 for children's cancer fund! Not to bad for Vancouver, WA that is for sure!
What an awful picture of me! I hosted the night and was running around like a lunatic to make sure everything went to plan..by the time the pictures were taken at the end of the night, I looked like total rubbish.
Here is a shot of me before we left for the event, looking a bit more put together:
After waking up the next morning and hanging with my kids, I headed to Salon 77 in Portland, OR to have my hair colored for an AMAZING photoshoot with Vorpal Images. (you will have to wait to see this shoot!) Salon 77 is an adorable salon in the basement of an old bulding in the pearl district. So neat!
Not to scare you, but here is a blurry sneak peak at my new color:
Brown. I am a brunette. I am not sure how much I love it yet, its growing on me, but its so... brunette. Anyway, the color job itself is beautiful. I will keep it for a while and see where it takes me.

Sunday was the EPIC shoot with Vorpal, and I woke up sick. I wore a corset for most of the day, whilst hacking and coughing. I am sure the pictures will look amazing, but the day kicked my butt. Monday morning I woke up worse than the day before and slept nearly the whole day away.

I am just now slowly starting to feel better.. a nice soak in the tub may be all that I need today...

Ballad of a Bottle Blonde

My roots had taken a turn for the worse, and were approaching 3 inches of contrast coloring.
Last night, I decided to overhaul my not-so-lushious locks, by bleaching it to high heaven.
The result was, to say the least, yellow.
I had a bright goldenrod mop of curls all day today, and I cringed a bit every time I passed by a mirror.
Tonight's game plan consisted of BLUE SHAMPOO to correct the lemon-head I was sporting.
Pulling the towel off I sighed in relief, that my hair, is now one step closer to a clear white blonde.
Comedy of the night: a darling picture of my "mustard mane." Do enjoy. Please also take note of my out of control eyebrows! I am off to fix that right this instant! My Goodness.