DIY Dyeing Breeches for Us Mere Mortals (Fail!)

I read some blog posts and comments online about people dyeing their sunshirts and breeches.  And they made it sound pretty easy!  I had a pair of white breeches I got for shows, that just wasn't show quality anymore but I still didn't want to wear white to school is so I figured I'd give this dyeing thing a try.  And I'm here to say, for us mere mortals that are not particularly crafty, it is not idiot proof.  My hats off to those of you who were able to do this correctly!

My breeches were 95% cotton, 5% spandex so I got the "all purpose" dye not the one for synthetics.  Mind you, this is supposed to be the easier one because you don't need to do it over the stove.  I just dumped the dye into a large plastic tub with hot water and some dishwash detergent.  Then I put in the breeches, which I ran under water first.  I used gloves to submerge the breeches in the dye water, and gently moved it occasionally as I let it soak for about an hour.  Then, as per the directions I ran the breeches under running water until the water ran clear, and then put them in the dryer with a towel.

Clearly, I shouldn't quit my day job to pursue arts and crafts!  The results are far from perfect.  There are light colored blotches on a big section of the front.  And then a dark colored stain on the leg.  I'll keep them for schooling because I'm not one of those gorgeously put together people you see on other blogs, who look just as nice leaving the barn as they did when they arrived.  Sadly that is just not me, as hard as I try usually I leave the barn with the frizzy messy hair and smudges of dirt or horse hair. 

Overall the color is much brighter and lighter than I expected from the "dark green" dye.  (The picture below is a better representation of the actual color than the ones above.)  As you can kind of see in the picture above, the sock bottoms stayed white and the silicon is white as well.  This I kind of like.  The stitching on the seams stayed white as well.

I have a bottle of blue dye for synthetics that I was going to use for a lighter blue sunshirt I wanted to darken, but I don't think I should bother...