How to Dye a Crinoline

This wasn't nearly as hard as I thought that it was going to be. Now, it was messy so there were many dark towels laid out so that the carpet didn't get any dye on it.

(Please remember that these were taken on my cell!)

The crinoline pre-dye. White, nylon, tulle, etc..
I bought it off ebay because I wasn't paying the full price for it. I found this one for twenty dollars (including freight.) And it worked well since I wasn't sure if I wanted to even wear one.

I had decided that I wanted to do my own color because I wasn't thrilled with any of the other options. So, when looking at the site, there was a celery color that looked the closest to what I was aiming for. So I got the yellow and the kelly green dyes and just tried to mix them the best I could. I did one whole package of green and two thirds of a package of yellow. Hobby Lobby had the best selection of dyes. Every time I would check at Wal-Mart they would be sold out or they didn't have the right green option available.

Now since this was the powder version, I did have to do the predye bath - two cups of hot water per package. I grabbed a large cup that I didn't mind throwing away, a plastic knife to stir it with and got to work. The color was so dark in the cup, that I was scared that it was going to be that dark in the end. Of course, it didn't dawn on me that it would be a bit more diluted in the largest cycle of the washing machine. Duh.

I went and started the wash on the largest, longest, and hottest available option. I let it fill and begin the cycle. Then I mixed in only a half cup of salt and a tablespoon of detergent. I let that mix together while I was wetting the crinoline in the bathtub. After all that I stopped the wash, reset the timer to about 15 minutes and then poured in the dye.

Now it says to let the items that are being dyed to go through the cycles for 30 minutes. Since I wanted to check the color and make sure that my crinoline didn't end up looking like something Jerry Garcia would wear, I checked on it every ten minutes. This picture was after the second ten minute cycle. The worst part was unwrapping the crinoline. I had to take it completely out of the water, untwist it, and then replace. That may have been the messiest part too.

After the last cycle of ten minutes, I put the crinoline in the closest bathtub and started the shower on it to rinse the dye out. Then, I started the rinse cycle on the washer. After I was done with the crinoline rinse and the washer was done, I put bleach and detergent in the washing machine and started it over again (on the largest cycle to get to the water line of the dyed water.) Just on warm though because I don't like using the hot water option and cold water would have set the stains. My crinoline hung to dry for about 15 minutes, then I decided that I wasn't patient enough for that. So I threw it in the dryer on the lowest heat cycle with a dryer sheet because there was some static in it to begin with. It only was in there for twenty minutes at the most. And this was the final product!