Muddy Dirty Dye

It has been a while since I posted.  Last week I was a bit under the weather with a cold & sinus problems, so I wasn't up to doing a lot, not to mention that red, raw noses don't make for great pictures. But I was able to get this FABULOUS jacket refashioned up a bit.

It is a great military jacket & fits me like a glove.

This was a great purchase off of my friend who it didn't work for after she went through Dressing Your Truth.  She knew it would be loved & appreciated by me ;-). 

This jacket just needed some dirtying, so I finally got the details down of my dirtying process to share with you all.

These are the 3 dyes that I use.  I call this my "Muddy Dirty Dye".  Most dirty recipes are yellow, this one is a great brown base that looks gorgeous on a dark denim.  I shared another denim refashion a while ago & I used this recipe on it.

Muddy Dirty Dye Recipe

28 cups boiling water

1/3 cup tan dye

2 T dark brown dye

2-3 T orange dye (less on lighter denim, more on darker denim)

1/2 cup salt.

Stir everything together.  Get your article of clothing completely wet before placing in the dye.

I always use a big plastic storage bin and I wear big rubber gloves while working on it. I place item in and move around for about 15 minutes.  I move it constantly & massage the fabric to make sure it takes the dye really good.  I wring it out & rinse it in cold water until the water runs pretty much clear (I do this process in my stainless steel kitchen sink).  Throw in the washing machine on a Handwash cycle on cold & lay dry or tumble dry on extra low heat so it doesn't get that hard, stiff feel that some jackets get when they have been laid out to dry.

You can see how great it looks with being more brown.

The side by side looks amazing.

I paired it here over my fab mustard sweater shirt, my new Walmart skinny jeans I got for $13, my everyday brown boots (you have seen a lot & will continue to see).  It is hard to see, but all of the jewelry are Lindsi originals ;-).  Happy Muddy Dirty dyeing!

Casual dress to Pencil skirt

My sister gave me this casual cotton dress back a while ago.  

I wore it a few times, mainly as lounge clothes up at our cabin.  I felt frumpy in it, so I decided it was time to figure something out with it so I would enjoy wearing it.  I cut the top part completely off, turned it inside out & slipped it on as a skirt.  I then pinned down the sides to get it to form to my body to create a pencil skirt.  I may eventually do an elastic waist, but for now I left the top edges raw.  It is always under shirts or under a belt, so it's not a big deal right now.

I did want to show a new concept today with my item-outfit put together.  I wanted to show how you can take an inspiration picture, like this one I found on Pinterest.

The idea was really cute & different, but the black doesn't work for me.  So I took the inspiration & made it work for me

I used the skirt I made that is brown & cream small stripe, brown leggings & my cream sweater.  The original picture had a plain scarf, but I needed color & texture, so I made that the pop of my outfit.  Something I do often & love to do is put bracelects over my long sleeves.  I was excited to see this picture do that.

So, when you are searching Pinterest for your perfect style, maybe consider that pictures that you wouldn't pick for color purposes, have some great style ideas.  I look at pictures to see if there is anything at all that can inspire me & spark new ideas.  I love having a "challenge" to create my outfits.

In the future, look for more inspiration challenge posts.  It is a great way to step out of the box of what you would normally select to wear, and I am all about trying new things!