Sunday, May 31, 2015

How I got a one of a kind dress for about $10

My mom and I like to shop at Savers and Goodwill.  On my most recent visit to El Paso we went shopping at two different Savers locations. Here is how I got a great dress at a great price.

1. We went on a Holiday weekend. Because it was Memorial day weekend Savers had all clothing 50% off. I bought an all cotton dress for 6.50. I liked the material and cut of the dress, but I thought the black and white was boring.

2. I bought a bottle of fuchsia liquid rit dye at Hobby Lobby. With coupon it came to $2.40. Always use those 40% off coupons when shopping at Hobby Lobby. I have the app on my phone which makes it easy.

3. I used my new pressure cooker to dye the dress. I didn't use the actual pressure cooker function. I used the saute function to heat up the water, dye, and dissolve the salt. I got the dress completely wet before adding it to the bath. I turned the pressure cooker to warm and then let the dress cook for about 1.5 hours--stirring and shifting the dress regularly. After cooking the dress I rinsed it a bit in the sink, and then threw it in the washing machine. (Just to be safe I ran a tub cleaning cycle on the washing machine when the dress was done.)

4. When it came out of the dryer I had a whole new dress. I'm so happy with how it turned out. I then sewed shut one of the seams that had come unraveled. That's probably the reason it ended up at Savers. Someone didn't want to bother fixing that slight problem. I hand sewed it shut, and because it is the seam in the arm pit, it didn't have to be perfect. My hand stitching skills are pretty sad, but I knew I couldn't fit the sewing machine foot in the little area I needed to sew shut.

Voila. My new dress.


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