Old jeans + Rit dye = fabulous results

I've been meaning to post this for days, but I pulled my neck--on my 36th birthday, no less--and have spent the last two days in an Atavan and Percocet haze. Feeling much better this morning, and a good deal less foggy. So without further ado:

I've had two pairs of black jeans from Banana Republic for over two years now. I've loved having them--they're not a dark black, but more of a deep charcoal that looks good with everything. And the pants themselves, while a tad bit big in the waist, fit me nicely in the hips, which is a near miracle (I have no hips, really, and most pants usually bunch out at the sides). Despite my best efforts at preserving their color--washing inside-out, air-drying, wearing a few times between washes--they'd recently gotten a little faded and shabby.

Before I gave up on them, I decided to try Rit dye. I'd considered it before but was afraid they'd end up looking goofy--either everything would dye, including the nylon threading, or there would be no natural variation in the color. But somewhat recently, Real Simple had an article about what repairs were possible to clothing, and I found that only natural materials such as cotton and linen take color, where the nylon does not. Despite that, they indicated the chance of success was fair to middling, but I decided to take the "plunge." (I'm feeling good enough to make bad puns, apparently.)

Anyway, the jeans look great! All of the natural variation in color has remained behind, the dye hasn't rubbed off on my legs or undergarments, and the nylon threading remained beige. They also didn't dye TOO black, so I'll still be able to wear them with everything. I've included a photo below of the two pairs I own. The newly dyed ones are on the right; they were initially a little lighter than the ones on the left:



Not bad for a $2.99 bottle of dye!

(One caveat--you have to run the washer three times for this project. Once, to dye the garment, secondly, to wash the garment, and then you need to run an empty load with bleach to clear out all remaining traces of dye from the machine. You may also need to spray the inside of the lid with a bleach and water mixture. Throw in an old white towel during that last load to make sure it comes out clean--if there's no dye on it at the end of the load, you can feel safe washing the rest of your clothes in there.)