In Which I Get My Hands Dyed Red (Again).

I decided to make myself a pair of red jeans with the leftover dye from my final projects. I bought a bunch of colours that I never ended up using, and I've been trying to come up with a use for them. I used Jacquard dye bought from Maiwa on Granville Island. I like this dye because the colour is extremely vibrant; the dye itself is easy to use and relatively non-smelly. Here's a step-by-step to follow if you want to do something like this yourself.

You'll need:

1. One pair of white (or light coloured) jeans. 
2. If you're using light jeans, you'll also need about 2 cups of bleach.
3. Fabric Dye. I highly recommend the Jacquard dye, but I've also had good results from Tulip Dye as well. I'm not a big fan of Rit or Dylon products.
4. Gloves. And old/ dyeing clothes to wear.
5. Large pot or metal container, large enough to fill with water to completely cover the garment.
6. Metal spoon(s) for stirring the dye. 
7. Well ventilated kitchen/ prep area (you'll need to heat up the dye bath).

You might also want to put down some newspapers in your work area. My damage deposit is a thing of the past that disappeared the minute I decided to dye my hair blue in the bathroom, so I didn't bother. Suck it, landlords!

For best results, I would recommend starting with a pair of new white pants, but being the broke college grad that I am, I decided to make the best of a mediocre situation. The mediocre situation being my old jeans. I had acid-washed them last year, and while I enjoyed the outcome, they aren't as nice as some of my other pairs, and weren't getting much use.

The jeans were already pretty light from the bleaching process, but once I put them in the water to prep for dyeing, I noticed they could be a lot lighter. On to the bleaching!

It goes without saying, but make sure you change into something that you don't mind getting bleach on. I already ruined these pants with other dye projects.

I gave them a quick rinse in the sink with ~2 cups of bleach. I used the fancy Fibregard bleach, as these jeans have already been pretty beat up, and the fibres were already weak. Don't use colour safe! The point is to get all the dye out.

You should be using gloves. I didn't have any handy, so I avoided touching the bleach by using a metal spoon.

Soak the jeans in hot water and bleach for ~15 min. If the water looks like this, that means the bleach is working! Once most of the colour was out of the jeans, I washed the bleach out with a very small amount of soap. 

 Rinse until the water runs clean; no colour or soap left in the jeans.

At this point you can start preparing the dye bath. Bring a pot of water (enough to completely submerge your garment) to a boil, then lower the heat and add the dye. Make sure to follow the directions on the box of dye, every process is different! Mine had two portions; the dye itself and an intensifier.

Take the still-wet jeans and immerse them slowly in the dye bath.

Again, follow the instructions for your dye carefully! The dye I bought said to leave the garment immersed for an hour, so I went to go watch an episode of Buffy and wait. About every 15 min, go check on the dye and stir around the garment, to make sure the dye can get into every corner.

Give the jeans a good rinse in the sink after the dye bath is complete. Again, rinse until the water runs (reasonably) clear.

Time for the last step! Throw the jeans in the wash on warm/cold. If your washer has an "extra rinse" option, use that. 

*Ahem* Make sure you haven't accidentally left anything in the washing machine. I found this once-white sock at the bottom of the wash. It is now hilariously pink.

Either let the jeans hang dry, or if you are as impatient as me, put them in the dryer. This project turned out much better than I had hoped, considering these jeans are very old and very processed. I would definitely recommend using new, already white jeans for a more vibrant outcome.

Extra Points if you noticed that my bathroom sink got cleaner between photos!

The jeans are dyed! Now I just have to come up with a new closure for them, and they'll be ready to wear out. I'll be posting the DIY for acid washing some time next week, and you'll get to see just how much these jeans have been through.

Soft Rebellion

Click to enlarge!

These were the final pieces that I decided to make from my collection. Everything is hand dyed.

Well I have my final shots back from the photographer, and I am incredibly pleased with the results.
Many thanks to Deanna Palkowski, Negar Hooshmand, and Matthew Burditt for their immense help with making the shoot go smoothly.

Now, a little bit about the collection. I started off wanting to make something completely structured, based off gothic architecture and, more specifically, specific churches and the architecture of those. As you can see... I strayed pretty far from that. I guess the closest remnant of that initial inspiration you can see here is the use of lace, which I was originally going to use as stained glass panels, and the wine-dyeing methods. Eventually the collection took a turn towards surrealism, with artists such as Max Ernst providing the inspiration for the colour palette.

Max Ernst , "Ein Mond ist guter Dinge" , 1970

Once I discovered different dyeing methods, they quickly took over my inspiration and I was trying everything and anything I could get my hands on to dye fabric. It was a fascinating learning experience; I am looking forward to continuing experiments with natural dyes and seeing what else I can come up with! I did use some synthetic dyes as well (the blue in the last dress, and the yellow dye, as well as the print in the first dress), but given more time (and money for test fabric... yikes), it would be interesting to experiment some more.

Coffee dyeing process- note that these shots were taken to look pretty, I didn't actually try to dye fabric in fancy bowls 

Using Setasilk paints and kitchen sponges to create the yellow dress print.

-T

Finishing Touches

Well, my final collection for grad school is finally done. My portfolio is in, and now the only thing to do is start applying for internships and jobs. I've been putting everything off because I wanted some downtime, but really I know it's because I don't quite know what I want yet.

I'm torn between dreams right now. I wish I could have a "Remedial Chaos Theory" segment to my life, where I flip a coin and get to see both outcomes of my life. One where I stay here inVancouver, with its glorious free health care and clean mountain air; one where I move to New York with its incredible culture, exciting new adventures, and job opportunites in my field. Both options are quite viable at this point, but each has its own distinct benefits and sorting out which thing I'd like to do most is causing quite the internal conflict.

I know what I have to do, now the only thing really stopping me is myself.

New Year's Revolution

Ok, so I doubt I am the first person ever to think of that post title, But I've been up since 8am on a holiday, so I think I get a pass.

New Year's, as we all apparently figured out just this last year, is the most over-hyped holiday ever. I think it is because we wait up eagerly til midnight, expensive champagne in hand, hoping that we will somehow feel "different" when an arbitrary hand moves over a man-made number line. And we don't, because realistically, this minute was no different than the last, or the one right after that.

I always feel a lot better the morning after NYE, waking up in a new year and ready to tackle the challenges that it brings me. I feel like waking up at 8am, walking my dog, doing yoga... whatever. This feeling generally lasts a week before I get grumpy at the site of any clock before 10 again.

So maybe this year won't be very different (well, besides the world ending this December and all... stupid mayans.), but that doesn't mean we can't at least pretend it might be. In the case that this year is indeed different, here are my New Year's goals:
1. Blog more. Easier said than done, but hey! I'm blogging right now! That counts for something, right?
2. Take the stairs more often. As someone who wants to live in NYC with no money, I have a feeling I'm going to need to get used to walk-ups and a lack of elevators.
3. Be more awesome. Because that's a goal I feel everyone should work towards.

I won't bore you with all my personal, work-related, and financial goals that are ongoing, just the three most exciting ones. And the ones I am most likely to not fail at, as "overcoming my intense fear of failure", as you can see, is not on my resolution list. Maybe we'll achieve that in 2013.

Here's to a great New Year, one that hopefully won't end in an Apocalypse. ;)

-T