i've been trying to get into more "diy" stuf for a while now: i already have made fuse bead accessories for my bag, i crochet hats and pouches. one thing i really wanted to get into was making my own clothing, or sewing other kinds of items from fabrics. i still haven't gotten around to that, alas.

fortunately, winter break came! and before that break, i and a friend skipped a few classes to thrift clothing. other than a few funky (and swaggy!) hats, i also found a nice jean. it was a bit long, but worry not, i wanted to do more things myself, remember? it laid around on the floor for a week or two, after which i finally got around to shortening the legs. it went well. the pant now fits me nicely and doesn't drag around on the floor. although i think i cut them too short. i had quite a bit of material left from surgery. the hamster in my brain sped up a bit, and i remembered that i had some fabric dyes in the wardrobe left over from a tie-dying event i organized with friends a while ago!!

yeah, science! x3

i took the precision scale out, followed the instructions on the packaging, logged everything carefully... and then realized that it's not that deep, and the instructions later call to dissolve the mixture in an arbitrary amount of water. oh well. i just ran the initial batches in fully saturated solutions, with particles even floating around in some of them. i also later realized that the instructions are either total bullshit, or someone didn't even run proper tests. the given dying time of an hour seems absurd, since at the high temperatures written, the dye works very quickly. but maybe it won't bind correctly, or whatever. i didn't test everything.

i tried different dyes, combinations. the first ones were:

• blue (yes, i died an indigo-dyed fabric with a blue dye)
• yellow
• red
• "purple"
• red again, but with a lesser exposure
• green

my personal favorites were the red and yellow swatches, but i have to also appreciate the green. i took many photos and picked the ones that match what my eyes see the most.

i later used some sodium persulfate and chlorine pool tablets as bleach. i have to say, the persulfate made a really nice color overnight. with the chlorine bleach, i made samples with varying levels of indigo remaining, or whatever the color had now become. i tried dying a  fully bleached swatch purple, resulting in a vibrant red, which makes just too much sense. :-)

i spent the next fews days trying out other combinations. i kept logs of some of the processes, but i'm too lazy to write everything down here. hit me up in the comments if you'd like to know something. i really believe these might have some potential. there's a bunch of non-dyed swatches left (at the bottom), but i lost motivation quickly lol

the pant

i finally settled on one of the first swatches – the non-bleached red-dyed material. i followed the instructions on the packaging roughly to make sure everything works, in case i'm the fool for calling bullshit earlier. lots of stirring, an insane workout trying to rinse the pant later, and i now have an awesome sauce jean! it turned out great and i love it! i'll definitely thrift some more dye-worthy clothes soon. i'm thinking of a partial sodium persulfate bleaching bath or a yellow tint on indigo denim...

dye your jeans!