Dye My Darling

I'm not usually one for following fashion trends, but this is one I've always had a soft spot for, and it looks like it's currently all the rage with the current fashionista crowd...

Grunge.

I used to dress grungy when I was a kid, when it was made popular by the likes of Nirvana, Babes in Toyland and L7. Though I didn't realise then that I was a child at the forefront of fashion. They were just the kind of clothes I owned and felt comfortable in. Ripped jeans, black DMs, lumberjack shirts, floppy velvet hats, denim shorts with cropped knitted jumpers...

Since then, a bit of grunge has always remained in my wardrobe. Whether that be short short denim shorts, ripped tights and jeans, black boots, or tie-dye t-shirts.

I recently decided to dye a batch of t-shirts I hadn't worn for a long while. I'm always customising my clothes, trying to breathe a little more life in to them. I got mixed results, some I was more pleased with than others.

 Apologies for the creases, I don't really do ironing!

For this batch, I used Dylon hand dye in Flamingo Pink and Bahama Blue. I used two old jugs to make the dye up in, keeping it much more concentrated than the instructions advised. I twisted the tops up and chucked varying amounts of the dye all over them. Since it was a lovely sunny day, I hung them out to dry. Once dry (and very crusty, due to the salt), I gave them a rinse in cold water. Straight away the majority of the vivid dye colour was lost down the plug hole. And I know that much more of the colour will be lost after their first proper wash.

The above top is one I did over two years ago now, though with pale blue and pink Dylon hand dyes. It's had plenty of washes so has faded quite a lot. Is there any way this can be avoided I wonder?

Maybe trying a different make of dye would give me the results I'm after? Bright, vivid colours. Or perhaps using one of the many tie-dye kits out there would give better results? 

I plan to do plenty more dying of tired old clothes, so if anyone out there has any quality dying tips, I'd love to hear from you!