Adventures in crinoline dying

After trying to think of ways to customize my wedding-day look, I was ecstatic when I came across a few deliciously colorful photos in the web-o-sphere of brides who decided to wear colored crinolines beneath their dresses. It was love at first sight. I absolutely loved the fun pop of color these wardrobe pieces provided. And I also loved the wide range of uses of the colored crinoline; some brides went for all-out, super vibrant color, while others opted for subtle hues of pinks or blues that gave just a slight nod to the whimsical.

I decided I had to give it a go. What better way to continue to pay homage to my personal favorite color *purple* and the weaving in of the color into my wedding day? I read several helpful how-to guides for dying using the magical color changer RIT dye and weighed the pros and cons of using powdered dye (more concentrated but there’s less of it) over liquid dye (less likely to dye as darkly as you might want but there’s more of it). I opted for liquid dye. I also opted for the ease of washing-machine dying. It required running hot water, detergent and bleach through the machine a time or two afterward to clean it out, but I figured it was a safer bet than potentially ruining a sink or a bathtub in my apartment.

So, with bottle of liquid dye in hand, I stuffed the layers of poofy crinoline I had purchased from Amazon into the hot pool of purple water in the washing machine and ran it for about 30 minutes.

The results were so-so. The tulle part (the fun part!) is a lovely light purple. However, the rest of the crinoline came out a cotton-candy shade of pink. Whoops. I had worried that might happen, as I had read that polyester doesn’t dye particularly well and I really had a hard time finding a crinoline that wasn’t polyester. So now I am left trying to decide whether it’s worth re-dying or going the more dangerous route of cutting the fabric away from the tulle since that’s the part I care the most about anyway.