Ann & her family stopped by on Friday night, the first leg of their trip to Madison for a wedding on Saturday. Ann & Brian made dinner while I helped the boys prep some shirts for the indigo vat!
They're going to be staying with me for a few days in mid-August, and they each have a few more shirts with which to experiment.
We let the shirts sit overnight after their dip; I snapped and sent some photos on Saturday so they could see the results.
Mack put rubber bands at the sleeves, then sort of bunched up and folded the body, securing with another rubber band… and I think he tucked a clothespin under the band at the last minute. It wasn't very secure, but I think there's some recognizable clothespin action on the right sleeve.
I helped Addy secure rubber bands on the body and each sleeve… I *love* the tiny little circle motif on the left sleeve.
Annie banded up a shirt, too. She used a lot of rubber bands and made the back different from the front (alas, not shown…).
I refreshed the vat a bit after they left, and after the farmers market (and my nap) on Saturday, I threw a few more things into the pot.
Shirts, shorts, and even a pair of my stepdad's jeans on the line after dyeing on Friday-Saturday. The jeans turned out pretty good, and he gave me several more pair to "refresh." I think I'll be doing that this week on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon.
We'd prepped a shirt for my BIL on Friday but no one did anything with it, so I bunched and banded it into sections and dipped it on Saturday. I dipped the bottoms sections one or two more times than the top.
Edited to add:
Until I perused my closet this morning, I forgot about this J.Jill top that I over-dyed in the indigo vat! I bought it 5 years ago when Sharon & I went to Las Vegas. It was light gray; I wore it and I liked it, and tired of it. Lately, it's been in and out of the donation bag countless times; now it has new life!
I also revived a very old pair of Rusty's shorts. It's actually one of two pair. I forgot about the second, but that's okay because I can show "before" photos.
I don't know… 10 years old? At least six…
Here's the color under the pocket flap… obviously the entire garment was once that color. The dark teal spots are telltale signs that these were worn while painting our house.
One quick dip and they're good for another 10, at least!! Haha.
The end.
Oh my gosh, I love everything!!!
It looks like you’re having a fabulous time with your indigo vat! Love all the colors of blue you end up with after the dipping and drying. LOVE!
Refreshing old denim — genius! And how many wives would put a close-up of their husband’s butt on their blog? btw, tell Rusty he probably has many new admirers after this post 😉
I’ve always loved your indigo shirts, but your overdyeing and refreshing is really interesting. You and Margene are definitely the cool kids of indigo dyeing!
awesome! …do you have to take any extra steps after the dyeing to set the color?
What a fun thing for you to share with the boys! And ‘refreshing’ older items? Genius.