dye – Melodrama

Spring Wardrobe Update with Rit Dye

Published on April 24, 2018 by Krys2 Comments

Hey, fam. I’ve been busy at updating some rooms and my back patio for spring and thought it would be a good idea to update some of my wardrobe too! While going through my closet I found this white dress I got last year from Tatyana that I haven’t worn in foreverrrr. Rather than giving it away I decided to try to dye it using Rit’s new coral color. I love that they came out with this color because I used to have to custom mix a few different shades together to make color, but now it’s ready to use! I figured if it didn’t work out I could just use Rit’s color remover, which I’ve had a ton of luck with in the past.

The cool thing about this dress is that the fabric has an iridescent sheen and a subtle retro bubble pattern. My hope was that the dye would bring out the bubble pattern and leave some of the sheen.

The fabric is mostly polyester so I was worried it wouldn’t take the dye, but as soon as I dunked it into the dye bath it soaked it right up and I was not disappointed.

The way I like to dye everything, including synthetics, is to make a very hot dye bath in my sink with hot, hot water and a few drops of liquid soap. I let the garment soak for about an hour, stirring and shifting the fabric every 15 minutes or so for an even dye. Then I rinse with cold water and Rit’s color fixative. Then I line dry.

See how the fabric took the dye and made the pattern pop? I love the way it turned out!

Now I have a spring-y new dress to wear while pretending I’m good at gardening.

This post was sponsored by Rit but all ideas, opinions, and words are my own.

Mid-Century Inspired Custom Dyed Dining Room Accessories| Rit’s 100 Year Celebration

Published on January 29, 2018January 29, 2018 by Krys6 Comments

If you’ve been following the blog over the years you will know that I LOOOOVE to use dye to transform home decor. I’ve dyed curtains, rugs, bedding, and even my sofa! My go-to dye has always been Rit because it’s inexpensive and easily accessible. Luckily Rit heard about what a fan I am and asked me to be one of this year’s brand ambassadors so stay tuned for more projects!

This year is special because it’s Rit’s 100 year anniversary! To celebrate we teamed up to recreate one of their adorable vintage ads from 1962. This project was especially fun for me since I’m obsessed with mid-century advertisements and even keep a collection of them for inspiration.

I picked this one because the dining room set up reminded me a lot of my own, particularly the top right corner version. I already planned on dyeing curtains to match my artwork, so I went all-in and dyed a tablecloth and cloth napkins as well.

For the vibrant pink tablecloth and curtain I used a 50/50 mix of Rose Quartz and Petal Pink, and for the orange napkins I used a 50/50 mixture of Tangerine and Golden Yellow. I just mixed those up with hot water and a little dish soap right in my sink basin. I then soaked them in Rit’s dye fixative and rinsed with cold water. Easy peasy!

I love how everything ties together with the artwork and my vintage Burke chair pads. Now I just need to throw a little dinner party with a Jell-o salad and few cocktails ;).

IKEA HACK: KARLSTAD Pink Mid-Century Inspired Sofa Makeover

Published on September 15, 2016August 14, 2017 by Krys42 Comments

Ohhhh man, you guys. I’m reallllly excited about this project. Bear with me because there’s a lot to cover (no pun intended).

A while back I posted about how I was on the hunt for a new sofa and narrowed down a few of my favorite contenders. One of the contenders was the KARLSTAD from IKEA because I knew I could save a lot of money by attempting a hack, and thanks to a pretty hefty tax audit (kill me) that’s what I ended up having to do. As luck would have it I found a perfect KARLSTAD at IKEA for $250 in the clearance section. A lot of you already know that I’m no stranger to IKEA Hacking, but it has been a while since I did one so I was feeling up to the challenge. Luckily it didn’t take long before I knew exactly what I wanted to do in order to make it come close to the couch of my dreams.

The KARLSTAD is pretty much an IKEA staple and I’m sure you’ve seen it in many homes. It has clean, modern lines and comes with an easily removable slip cover. Perfect for my hacking plan. The one I bought had a grey cover and my IKEA was sold out of the white slip cover, but luckily my best friend in Florida found one at her store and was able to send it to me. Since KARLSTADs have completely removable slip covers I knew I could dye it to be whatever color I wanted.

I picked up a few boxes of Rit dye in Petal Pink. I filled my bathtub with boiling water and dye and soaked the slip cover until it was saturated. Then I promptly had a minor freak out because it didn’t turn out the rosey/peachy/blush pink color that I wanted and that appeared on the box.

I took a deep breath, refusing to be defeated, and rushed to the fabric store to grab some Rit Color Remover, a magical powder that gently removes all of your regrets and gives you a clean start. If only I could bathe myself in it. Just kidding…!

After a quick soak the slip cover was back to white. I knew at this point I was going to have to custom mix my own shade of pink so I threw the covers in the wash and went back to the fabric store for the 5th time to pick up more dye.

I can’t tell you the exact ratios of these colors that I used for my shade because I was constantly adjusting and testing the color. I want to say it was something like 4 parts pink, 1/2 part yellow, 1/8 part tan, but I’m not 100% sure so don’t come back yelling at me if yours turns out gross. I also diluted it a lot more than the first time so the color would be more pastel.

My husband and I worked nervously and quickly, scalding our hands and sweating over the boiling dye bath in our typical Melo-dramatic style, but it was worth it. It worked out perfectly!

Dying the slip cover was only the first step. I wanted new legs and pretty tufting, and dammit that’s what I would get. These steps were actually much easier and less annoying than the dye part.

I changed the legs on my last KARLSTAD Love Seat in the past, so I knew that wouldn’t be a big deal. I used mid-century style furniture legs that I got from Lowe’s for like $2 and spray painted them gold and white.

Then I installed a top plate and attached the legs to the corners of the sofa.

I wanted to have legs in the center of the sofa, too. Partly for more support, but mostly because I like the look of it.

For this I just drilled a hole and inserted the leg directly into the wood.

That would have looked great on it’s own but I wanted tufting. I had spare fabric from an extra piece of slip cover that I found in the clearance bin at IKEA. I used this for my color test strips and then dyed a piece with the plan of covering buttons for tufting.

I used 7/8″ button cover kit and thread to make my tufting buttons, much like I did in this past IKEA hack.

Then I attached the buttons to upholstery string and used a long upholstery needle to feed the string through the cushion. I pulled the string tight and used these decorative buttons to anchor the string on the back of cushion. I didn’t want to go through the back of the cushion cover, and a knot would have just pulled back through the cushion insert, so I used the decorative buttons to hold my tufting in place. Am I making any sense at this point? Hopefully these visuals help.

And voila!

The decorative pillows are also from IKEA.I love the way the warm pink looks with the white and gold legs.I’m so excited to finally have a dreamy pink couch! And for less than $300!

Update: Here it is in the finished room!

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