Thank you to everyone who contributed to my last post about overdyeing my Nicole Miller upcycled skirt. Extra thanks to slim cat for suggesting doing test swatches using the sleeves of the dress. If you missed the post and are interested in the background, it’s here:

https://youlookfab.com/welookf.....ng-project

I ended up blending 2 colours together to dye my skirt:

aquamarine + teal*

*about 2:1 aquamarine to teal.

Rose/eggplant was my first choice, and I kept coming back to it. I think it would have been lovely, and been the most subtle change. But in the end I was too attracted to the idea of a more dramatic change. Given that I wore the dress a lot a decade ago, and I had tired of it, the idea of a dramatic “new” look was appealing.

I liked aquamarine because I was really taken with how it intensified and popped with the other colours in the dress pattern.

Many people voted teal, knowing my preference for all things teal. I preferred teal in terms of compatibility with my wardrobe but I felt pure teal dulled the other colours in the pattern too much. Compare the teal and aquamarine samples in pic 5.

I hoped that by creating a dye mix that was predominantly aquamarine I would retain more of the sharpness and intensity of the original pattern colours. And by including some teal in the colour mix there would be enough green in the undertone to create a bridge to my teal complement. I took into account that the yellow thread running through the pattern would be turned green as a result of the (mostly) blue dye, and that would create another green connection.

I dyed it carefully. No splotches! There is a mark on the front hip, but that might have been there before. I was nervous about dyeing it because it is silk and the care instructions for the dress said “dry clean”. Gulp!

The end effect does look overdyed. A bit like overdyed denim, which I don’t mind. It gives it a slightly unusual, edgy look (well, I think so anyway). And it’s given me some ideas about overdyeing denim. Stay tuned.

I’m going to declare this project finished (at last)!

I’m looking forward to wearing this skirt to coffee with the friend who was with me when I bought it in NYC and seeing if she recognises it

I’ve included a few stylings with a couple of teal tops. I think it works with both my more blue and my more green teal tops. And it gives me an opportunity to do the colour palette in pic 12, which I have been obsessed with for a while.

Your thoughts welcome.