Well I ordered a dress off Ebay and although I loved the dress it was too light in colour for me. I was thinking about adding an overlay of a darker shade of chiffon, like a champagne colour or something but it was going to be pricey......so I thought I would try and dye it, what have I got to lose? I'm not going to wear it this colour so might as well try. They cost £4.59 each and the salt cost 49p, i got 2 dyes and 2 packs of salt.....if this works it will have cost £10.16....worth it if it works.....

First of all the dress is satin, chiffon and tulle, all polyester.
Now I have been told that polyester is difficult to dye, and would probably only give it a hint of the colour you want, but as I only want a slight change, it sounds ok to me if its only slight, and bought 2 packs of DYLON......Pebble Beige.

I had to machine wash the dress first, on a 40 degree cotton wash, to get rid of any protective coatings.....then it was down to adding the dye to the washing machine drum.....

Here is my dress.....too 'White' for me, even though its Ivory, its still too pale a colour.


heres the dress during the pre-wash cycle.....


then I added the dye and 500gm of salt to the drum


Added the dye and 500gm of salt.......and the dress while still wet...then held my breath ...I like the colour I can see, hope it doesnt fade too much with the rinsing.....but if it does i will just do another dye cycle...you can see the colour difference next to my white washing machine..



its still in the machine so will post more later......

Thanks....gonna need it...XXX

Good Luck!! x

Good luck hun! Am keeping my fingers crossed and will be loggin into ukb again when I am home to see how things have worked ...... shhh! am typing this at work!! x

eep purple xx

lol pictures? x

I should have stopped the machine while it was the right colour and just dried it .....

It's always a different colour when it's wet, my beige top looks purple when it comes out of the wash and I always think it oh what have I done to it! Hope it works! X

hope everything is ok with your dress hun x

Oh NO!!!!
Waiting on pics....hope its ok ?

Hows it going...x x

is everything ok hun? xx

Waiting in suspense !! Hope all is well x

How did it go? x

Hmm, it doesn't look purple anyway...!!! Is it just the overlay that's purpley?

true, if all else fails you'll have a beautiful evening gown...

If I bit my nails, I would be doing it reading this post! Ah the stress, how is the dress now?? Please don't be lilac!

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppp hope it looks alright and you can alter it easily

OMG!! Only just read this :-(
How does it look today???

Oh noooooo! Just read all the way down the post and was hoping for a happy ending!

What's your plan B then RaggedyAnne? xx

Oh No!
What you gonna do now?

That sounds like a plan!!!
Im sure the shorter skirt would be fairly easy to make (for you clever ladies who know how! I cant even sew on a button!!!!)
There must be corset style tops you could buy fairly reasonably?
Do places sell them separately?

Bless you, after all your effort re the China dress too......
Hope the corset is yours and looks wonderful!
I know you didnt want to make your own but if you've the skill, it would be bespoke and exactly how YOU wanted it!!
Your a clever lady!
Plus if you get the corset, you would not be making your wedding dress, you would be making an ivory skirt!!
Look at it that way! xx

If I had your skills I would be making mine! The bridesmaid dresses are amazing! Good luck with the auction x