
I had so much fun doing this, it was my first time. Since everyone celebrates 4th of July and I don't anymore, I thought it would be a great evening to dye some clothes on my street. I dyed two pieces of clothing, both were made from 100% cotton. Here's what you'll need: 2 packages of RIT dye in black (can be bought at Shoprite - I used the powder not the liquid), a wooden stick for stirring (I used one we had for a Lowe's paint can), 2 black buckets from Dollar Tree, and just make sure you have some gloves as well as it can get very messy. Oh and salt, you will need salt, I just bought Morton's and used almost the entire thing (it is to make the clothes comes out darker). Here are the before pictures.

The crocheted vest I had for almost 5 years and I never wore it. I realized this summer I wished it was black, then I said well I can make it black. The Healing Herbs long sleeve tee I bought from Kohl's and I loved it but I hated the purple it came in. I wished it was gray tie-dye, although I also wished it was purely black. I followed this video on YouTube as a guide.
First thing I did was fill the two buckets with steaming hot tap water from the sink. They say to boil, but this was going to be a quick thing. I took both buckets outside on my street to the asphalt area. I then poured one packet of powder into one bucket, and the other into the other. Then I filled both buckets with salt. After placing each piece of clothing into each bucket, I alternating stirring them for 30 minutes. They say you can do it for up to an hour, but again a quick thing.

After all this, I wrung each out on the street, and ran through them with cold hose water over and over until the water ran semi-clear. I then placed them in a garbage bag and let them dry up overnight. The next say they actually were kind of dry, and I knew the next step was to wash them. Luckily they didn't leak out or anything, and putting them in the wash was just like washing anything else that wasn't dyed beforehand. The results were awesome (see below)!

I was a little worried that the writing on the Healing Herbs tee would be dyed away, but after washing it, it lost some of the dye so the writing showed up again! Keep in mind that when it's wet after you dye it you will not see it in its true form of color. Only after you wash it will you be able to see how it came out. The crocheted vest also came out way better than I expected especially since I was a little lazy about doing this whole thing, but wanted to do it nonetheless. There are other techniques to make it much darker and make it last longer, but this was the quick and easy route. I recommend trying it because it was a cool and fun activity and I would definitely do it again only because sometimes things just don't come in black.

