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.