After finalizing a date and booking that lovely venue, what’s next? Finding the perfect wedding dress.
Once you’ve finally found ‘the one’, that wedding dress of your dreams, the one with the ideal cut, design, and fit.
But somehow you feel like white isn’t the color for you, or you want to personalize your wedding dress and add a touch of your originality to it.
You can add color to your dress and get that specific shade you’ve always wanted by dyeing your wedding dress.
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Can a Wedding Dress Be Dyed?
Wedding dresses can definitely be dyed. Whether you want to be creative and unique, or you want something different to wear on your wedding day, dyeing it can be a good option.
Give it a totally new look far from the traditional white and ivory formal gowns and let your creativity shine.
Dyed wedding dresses are getting more popular as people seek a completely new look or want to get out of the traditional white wedding.
You can dye your gown a super light pastel shade, or if you really want to be eye-catching and bold, dye it in a dark or bright color.
Whichever suits your preferences and style, also take into consideration the theme and venue backdrop. A coordinated color scheme will always look lovely on your big day.
4 Fabulous Ideas for Dyeing Your Wedding Dress
Tie-Dye
Tie-dyes are a hip trend on wedding gowns right now. Be creative and have fun with colors in tie-dyeing.
If you’re really into the tie-dye effect, you can dye your whole dress with the color and the design that you want. You can also just dye the bottom half of your dress for that gorgeous look.
Dip Dye
If you want a dramatic play of colors, dip dyeing would definitely give your wedding dress a striking and fabulous update. You can use multiple colors with a dip-dye design.
If you’re doing a beach wedding and you just love the colors of the sunset, you can choose to dye the bottom half of your dress with orange, pink and blue for that splendid sunset color. Your dress will look heavenly, romantic and mesmerizing and so will you.
Ombre
Ombre design is a dazzling new trend for bridal gowns. It gives a beautiful dimension to your wedding dress.
Ombre is a color scheme that has the darkest color at the bottom of your dres that gradually becomes lighter moving up, fading into white.
Imagine a dainty pink ombre design on your wedding dress. You would look enchanting, charming, and ethereal.
Because creating the perfect ombre design on a dress requires meticulous effort, it is best to hire a professional to do it for you.
Full Color
Whether you opt for a light or dark color, you’re free to dye your wedding dress with that perfect shade that you love. Wedding gowns look dreamy and romantic when they are dyed subtly in a pastel shade.
Should You Hire a Professional or DIY?
Wedding dresses can be expensive and are a significant part of your special day. So it is recommended to get your wedding dress dyed by an expert.
It is not advisable to dye an expensive, designer wedding dress unless you have the budget to purchase another if it goes wrong. It is best to get professional help for dyeing your wedding dress.
If you have proper knowledge of dyeing and fabrics and you’ve done it countless times before, you may be confident enough to do it yourself. But if it is your first time, either practice on a couple of dresses you don’t use or just hire a professional.
For professional help, you can look for bridal shops that offer this service. Although some bridal shops require that the dress is bought from them in order for them to dye the dress.
Another option is to ask in high-end costume shops that sell costume jewelry and wear. They usually have designers on hand who are more skillful with stitching, dyeing clothes, and making alterations.
How to Dye Your Wedding Dress
Dying your wedding dress isn’t as hard as it looks. It isn’t really complicated, although there is a lot of room for error and mistakes.
If you really want to do it on your own, experiment first with white dresses purchased at thrift stores or if you have any similar dresses you don’t need. Dyeing requires meticulous skill and care and if it is done wrong, it might ruin your dress.
So practice beforehand and when you are sure you know what to do, you can proceed with dyeing your wedding dress.
You will only need a few items such as a fabric dye, a stainless sink or bucket, and a stirring spoon to stir the dye.
Here are some basic steps on how to dye your wedding dress.
1. Decide on the Design
Whether you want a tie-dye design, an ombre, or full color, deciding what design you want is the first step. If the base dress is not white, then you have to use a color remover first.
Dyeing the dress a full color of a dark shade is a different process than doing a dip dye design or adding a hint of color to a white dress. The more saturated the color that you want, the more dye you will need to use.
2. Check the Fabric Type
Dyes take differently to each fabric type so it is important to know the fabric you are working with and choose a dye that will work with it.
Do your research beforehand of the types of dye that will work on the specific fabric of your dress.
3. Fill the Bucket with Water and Dye
Fill the stainless sink or bucket with the dye mixture. The dye absorbs into the fabric better when the water is hotter.
Mix your dye in the water and stir thoroughly with the stirring spoon. Once you’ve filled in the water and mixed the dye, do a test with a fabric swatch.
4. Dye the Dress
When you’re happy with the test swatch results, you can now place the dress into the dye-filled sink or bucket.
There are two ways you can dye your wedding dress. You can use a bucket soak or dip dye method to dye your wedding dress.
● Bucket Soak
Doing this method will completely color your entire wedding dress. Leave the dress soaked for a specific amount of time in the dye mixture.
When doing this process, it is important to move the dress around while soaking to prevent color-build-up and splotchy areas on the dress. You want your dress to be equally dyed so moving it while soaked will help the color even out.
Stir the dress continuously for about 10 to 20 minutes. Once the color of the dress hits the color that you want, you can remove it from the water.
● Dip Dye Method
If you want an ombre effect on your dress, the dip dye method is the way to go. In this process, you have to dip the dress only on the part where you want the color to begin and leave it in the dye for a few minutes.
You’ll start noticing the color changing and once it does, lift the dress an inch or two every couple of minutes. This will create the gradated effect from light to dark color.
It may be challenging when using multiple colors, so it is advisable to get professional help when it comes to dyeing with multiple colors.
5. Rinse
Rinse the dress with warm water and once fully rinsed, rinse it with cold water until it runs clear. Hang the wedding dress to dry.
To get a complete look, compliment your dress with accessories that match the color of the dye.
If you’ve added some light blue and pink tie dye on the bottom half of your dress, play your whole look and glamorize it by adding a hint of these colors to your wedding veil or adding some flowers of the same colors to your hairstyle.
Add some color to your wedding dress and look show-stoppingly glamorous! Enjoy your magical wedding day with the fabulous dress of your dreams.
Resources:
- https://www.ehow.com/how_7663610_dye-wedding-dress.html
- https://www.brides.com/how-to-dye-a-wedding-dress
- https://www.gosfield-hall.co.uk/blog/can-a-wedding-dress-be-dyed/
- https://everlastingoccasion.com/can-a-wedding-dress-be-dyed/
- https://www.wantthatwedding.co.uk/2014/07/18/style-crush-dip-dye-wedding-dresses-diy-instructions/