Curtains Part 1: Adventures in Curtain Dyeing

I'm not exactly a newbie when it comes to using RIT dye. I dyed my wedding crinoline (the thing that makes your dress poof out)pink. My first attempt at using their "color recipes" didn't work out so hot for me though. I wanted the exact color you see in the picture below, but on my first attempt I mixed the dusty rose and a yellow color I can't remember the name of. It came out tangerine orange. It was a gorgeous color and would have been the envy of all if it were a fall wedding, but since it was in May and my colors did NOT include orange I was horrified. To fix it, I got another bottle of dusty rose and it finally came out perfect.



I've dyed a few other things like our 500 thread count bamboo sheets we bought with our wedding gift certificates to Bed Bath and Beyond. They were an uglyyyyy off white that looked more faded and old than anything, so I dyed them dark brown to better coordinate with our other bedding.

We went down to Target and bought the king size sheet that would become our curtains. At first I wasn't sure if I should go Lemon yellow, or a slightly more orangey golden yellow for the curtains. I figured I'd start out lemon because you can always easily go darker, but not as easily lighter in color.



Now that we have front a loading washer and dryer, I didn't quite trust my old system. So I opted for the 5 gallon bucket method. The curtain came out looking great while it was wet. I threw it in the washer and dryer to finish it off. It was much too light. It was a few shades darker than a yellow legal pad, so I made the decision to get all golden on it!



Here's my little dye shop. Looks fun doesn't it? Gotta love the creepy gloves that look like they've been dyed too.


Because the sheet kept coming up out of the water I filled a pot with some water to weigh it down.


When all finished I threw it in for a tumble.


That concludes the dyeing process. I'll be posting the steps to the final product soon.