Saving the Stained Dress

I have this dress. It's a fun summer dress. Simple and fun. But it was white.

So I was always a little paranoid when I wore it. Apparently not paranoid enough because when I pulled it out this spring I found a yellow stain on it. 

I was so sad! I tried bleaching it but it barely lightened at all. At first I thought it might not be that noticeable.

But it was and the dress was just too cute to throw away! So I came up with the brilliant idea to dye it. 

I had never dyed anything before so I asked some friends and did some research. I went to Michaels to find the dye. I figured they would have more color options. (Which they did.) After much debating I decided to go with the RIT brand in golden yellow. 

Now the instructions are on the inside of the box so don't destroy it when you open it. And something that's not on the outside of the box is that they recommend you using their color fader before dying your cloth. I didn't know that and decided since my dress was white it wouldn't matter. 

Because the fabric of my dress was pretty thin and there wasn't a lot of it the dye took pretty quickly. 

The instructions says to leave it in the dye for up to 30 minutes. I felt my color was done within 10 minutes.

I really like this yellow. Its a full and vibrant color but not so light you can see right through it.

Oh look its my closet without doors. 

It was really easy, with a light fabric, to get an even color in the dress. 

But my stained got dyed a darker color as well. 

You can see it turned orange here. The first assumption was that it wasn't that noticeable and I could get away with wearing it still. So I added a cardigan and fabric flower and wore it to work. I noticed the stain though and decided it wasn't going to work.

 I was still determined to keep the dress though. Thankfully my co-worker, Kathy, came up with a brilliant plan for me. She suggest putting a flower on the dress to cover the stain. 

Brilliant! 

I had a white cotton t-shirt that was pretty faded and I wasn't going to wear any more so I cut it into strips to make my flowers. I got the flower idea through dress tutorial from a blog I follow here.

P.S. I really want to make that dress too. Maybe when I have a friend who likes to sew. 

This is the flower before I sewed it down covering the stain. It changes some as you start to sew it down so don't get to set on how it looks. I uses a silverish colored thread and sewed the flowers down by hand.

Here it is after I sewed it down. 

I started off with 2 flowers and decided it wasn't enough.

Sewing down my last flower.

I didn't space them as well as I could have but I like them. I'm glad I chose white so I can add color other places with this dress.

I actually like the dress a lot better with the flowers. It's still simple but they just add that extra something. 

Before I wash the dress again I may go back and sew down the flowers a bit more. I don't want them coming loose in the wash or getting messed up. 

Wearing it at work, before I added the flowers even though you don't see that part in this photo. 

I wore a navy blue fabric flower and coral jewelry. I felt extremely colorful.

And this is Sunday at church. I didn't add the flower since I knew I would be carrying children that day. 

I love the flowers though and the way the dress turned out. 

A crafting win!!! 

Now you know how to think outside the box and save those stained items that still have some life in them. Or if you just really love it and can't let go. I may even re-stain some of my favorite black t-shirts so they look better. That was a different friends brilliant idea.

Dang, I have some brilliant friends don't I!!