Okay, so "ugly" is a bit too far. I actually think they turned out alright. They just weren't the color that I had in mind. But I want to make sure to share with you guys the things that don't always turn out exactly as planned. That's just part of life, right? And certainly a big part of being creative.
This was my very first time dying cloth so the project girl in me should have been eager to follow a proven method, but the art teacher and creative in me was more eager to create something new. I wanted to mix and play, and that's probably not what you should do on your very first run. That's my disclaimer for the project DON'Ts. (To find a full list of DO's and DON'Ts, see the bottom of this post.)
This was our master bedroom BEFORE.
We love where this room is headed. The $100 projects we've been adding to this space have been exciting and brought dramatic change. And the bleached drop cloth curtains have been here for years - a budget friendly option, for sure. It just turned out that we would enjoy a little more light control in the mornings. So as pretty as white is, it's not optimal for us in this particular room.
I actually have been looking for the perfect color curtains for months now and just haven't nailed it down, so I thought that it might be fun to try and dye my way to a solution. And seeing as how these bottles of dye are just a few dollars it was totally worth an experiment. Charcoal Grey: https://amzn.to/2Yv4ZLO
Taupe: https://amzn.to/2W53KoR
[Oh! And I wold love to try a dip dye curtain for the girls' bedroom with teal or maybe rose quartz. How cute would that be? Teal: https://amzn.to/2W1Cyri Rose Quartz: https://amzn.to/2Ywdiaa]
To see the result of my experimenting, have a look at this short video (click the image):
I will definitely try this again - it was really fun. But next time around I will be following the mixing chart. Here's a link to the Rit dye mixing chart, if you are interested in trying it out too.
Or, I may just go buy some fabric like I did for my husband's office. I tried his curtains in our bedroom to see if I liked the color (image below). What do you think - Spend a little more to get what I want or try to dye again?
To sum up my experience, here are some do's and don't's for your first try at dying fabric:
DO measure your amounts of dye - do the math!