Wedding dress NATURAL DYE transformation
In this blog and accompanying video, I show you how I turned this old silk wedding dress sample from my own collection, into something even more spectacular, using just some old tea bags and a few bits of leftover lace applique I had.
The first step was to do some test swatches, so I used some old scraps of ivory fabrics, filled a big pot of water and added some tea bags. You’re supposed to let them steep in the water for a while, take them out, and then put your fabric in.
But I was too excited to see how it would go, so I put the fabric in with the tea bags.
Not unsurprisingly, some of the tea bags burst, so you’ll have to excuse a few stray tea leaves!
What I found fascinating was the different colours I got from tea on the different kinds of fabric. You can see the tulle and netting picked up the colour very intensely and went almost an orange colour, even though it’s synthetic.
I hung the swatches on a drying rack and saw how the polyester picked up some of the colour but not much, and the silk, which is the fabric of the dress I wanted to dye, looked gorgeous – a very strong amber colour.
WATCH THE VIDEO OF THIS OLD WEDDING DRESS TRANSFORMATION USING TEA BAGS!
When it was time to dye my sample wedding dress, I put on my shorts, dismantled the mannequin and then took the dye bath and the dress out in the garden. I wanted an ombre effect where the lower part of the skirt is much lighter than the top part, and then the darker shade continues into the bodice.
So I dunked the whole thing in with the tea, along with a bit of salt as a fixative, but pulled the lower section of the skirt out almost straight away, and kept on lifting it out so only the top part remained for longer than a couple of minutes.
It was so exciting to see how the colour came out. If you give this a try and want a darker effect, you can just leave your dress in the dye bath for longer.
I used the garden hose to wash the excess dye out, and then hung the bodice and skirt on the washing line.
Once it had dried, and I’d ironed it, and then put it back on the mannequin. I added an ivory tulle sample skirt over the top of the dyed skirt, just to soften it a little, and then one-by-one, I added little lace applique flowers so they drifted down the bodice and onto the skirt.
I’d love to know what you think, so please leave a comment and let me know what you would like to dye with your old leftover tea bags!
I quite fancy trying with hibiscus tea next time, as this should give a lovely pink colour.
Thanks for reading, enjoy watching the video below and see you next time!
You’ll find more about this in my book which you can buy HERE. It makes a perfect gift for a bride-to-be, or for anyone who loves sewing, upcycling and wedding dresses. The book is on special offer for £39.50 instead of the £55 RRP, including free P&P.
