Ugly Skirt

My mom made this skirt for me out of the softest, drapiest linen rayon blend years ago. Of course back then, it was black! Hard to believe isn't it? After I wore it and wore it and wore it, the black was looking grey and faded. It was time to revitalize my favourite skirt.

I had wanted to try a reverse tie-dying technique where you use bleach to take color out instead of dye to add color to a garment. This was my first attempt. I painstakingly stitched a detailed design through the black fabric and dropped it into a bleach bath. I omitted one very important step. I forgot to thoroughly wet the skirt first and the fibers in the material acted like wicks and sucked the bleach right into every crease in my design. So when I cut the threads and spread the skirt out to admire my handiwork, there was no fabulous design! The entire skirt was a bright yellow except for a two inches around the hem where short black/brown stripes were left. I am sure that not wetting the fabric first was part of the problem, but I have also found on other bleaching projects that you must stop take the garment out of the bleach bath before it is all one color because for some reason, the bleach likes to migrate into the folds whether the fabric is wet or not. This will make more sense on another skirt that I show later.

So before the last dyeing session, this skirt was all yellow/orange except around the bottom and a faint line at the hip line. I restitched the circles and horizontal lines and tied the threads. I used a turquoise dye and ended up with this lovely green. When I first saw it after the final rinse, I thought it was hideous! I wasn't sure what I would do with it next, but didn't' think it was wearable without another overhaul. However, after I put it on, that ever soft, linen-rayon drape won me over quickly! And I realized deep down, I actually like green. The yellow green combo is still a little weird to me, but over all I still like the skirt. Someday I may dye it again and turn out another "interesting" color!