make do: a little dye to the rescue



 

A week ago, I hand-washed this "vintage cotton tank" by J. Crew with a green sweater. The dye ran from the sweater, and though I pulled the tank from the dye bath immediately and rinsed it, it had the faintest of green splotches on it (that I did not discover for a few days).

I was so disappointed! I love this tank; it fits like a dream. I thought I might as well try dyeing the dank to salvage it. I soaked it in leftover soda ash solution for a couple hours, then squeezed the soda ash out.

 

I lay the tank down in my bathtub and smoothed it flat. I folded it in half lengthwise, so that the side seams were touching. Then I folded it in half lengthwise again, folding the side seams back over towards the center fold. I then accordion folded this long strip of tank top in triangles. When I was done, I placed the stacked triangle in the old casserole dish I've used for dyeing silk scarves. I poured green dye along the three edges and let it stand for four hours before rinsing.

 

The end result is this great line pattern that wraps all the way around. It's pretty cool - and while it's not quite as business-appropriate as the original tank may have been, I'm happy to have salvaged it for any kind of wear.