To a tea
Last Sunday I had a day off work, and we all know what happens when I have a Sunday off… although this time I kept it a bit more local and went to the Wantirna Trash and Treasure for the first time in about 10 years. It was inspired by someone else’s post .. nothing like a bit of bargain hunting envy! I’m wearing my new finds here – a $3 lacy dress which I think came from someone’s dress up box, or perhaps rubbish bin judging by the state of it (can you see all the rust marks and stains?), black suede ballet shoes from Country Road for $1 (didn’t realise they have holes in the back until I got them home… nothing a bit of clever patching won’t fix), and a gold ring for $5 which I did want to buy anyway but was sort of forced into as I couldn’t get it off after trying it on… (the seller looked delighted and suggested I try on all his other rings, but I declined as despite any rumours to the contrary, I am not made of money!). I also bought a Max Mara woollen jumper for only $5 and a long-sleeve tshirt but that’s just for wearing under stuff, nothing really exciting and certainly not worthy of a glamour shot in my garage. I wouldn’t usually wear something like this lace dress so I’
m thinking it was the challenge of the repair job ahead of me that sparked this purchase, especially as it was so expensive ($3 is a lot when you consider this was probably just going to be thrown out unless someone as foolish as myself came along). I don’t think I’ll be able to get the rust and other stains out, so I’m thinking I’ll dye it, but of course now I can’t decide on the colour… I was considering using tea bags, as the rust is sort of a tea colour anyway and it looks like an old-fashioned tea dress too, don’t you think? And it would be eco-friendly because I drink a lot of tea anyway so it’s not like I’d have to go and buy dye. But colourwise, I’m not sure that tea-brown is my thing, so I thought what about a dark grey or indigo or black? What do you think? Has anyone dyed with tea before? This is why any project of mine takes so long… endless decisions! And I haven’t even got to thinking about whether I’ll keep the buttons or swap them for something else … or what to do with the slightly prim and proper neckline…. of course if I had made all those decisions and got myself organised this dress would have been ready to wear to yum cha this morning (which, being a tea dress and all that would have been most appropriate), but let’s just say I was lucky to even make it out of pyjamas today!
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Last Sunday I had a day off work, and we all know what happens when I have a Sunday off… although this time I kept it a bit more local and went to the Wantirna Trash and Treasure for the first time in about 10 years. It was inspired by someone else’s post .. nothing like a bit of bargain hunting envy! I’m wearing my new finds here – a $3 lacy dress which I think came from someone’s dress up box, or perhaps rubbish bin judging by the state of it (can you see all the rust marks and stains?), black suede ballet shoes from Country Road for $1 (didn’t realise they have holes in the back until I got them home… nothing a bit of clever patching won’t fix), and a gold ring for $5 which I did want to buy anyway but was sort of forced into as I couldn’t get it off after trying it on… (the seller looked delighted and suggested I try on all his other rings, but I declined as despite any rumours to the contrary, I am not made of money!). I also bought a Max Mara woollen jumper for only $5 and a long-sleeve tshirt but that’s just for wearing under stuff, nothing really exciting and certainly not worthy of a glamour shot in my garage. I wouldn’t usually wear something like this lace dress so I’
m thinking it was the challenge of the repair job ahead of me that sparked this purchase, especially as it was so expensive ($3 is a lot when you consider this was probably just going to be thrown out unless someone as foolish as myself came along). I don’t think I’ll be able to get the rust and other stains out, so I’m thinking I’ll dye it, but of course now I can’t decide on the colour… I was considering using tea bags, as the rust is sort of a tea colour anyway and it looks like an old-fashioned tea dress too, don’t you think? And it would be eco-friendly because I drink a lot of tea anyway so it’s not like I’d have to go and buy dye. But colourwise, I’m not sure that tea-brown is my thing, so I thought what about a dark grey or indigo or black? What do you think? Has anyone dyed with tea before? This is why any project of mine takes so long… endless decisions! And I haven’t even got to thinking about whether I’ll keep the buttons or swap them for something else … or what to do with the slightly prim and proper neckline…. of course if I had made all those decisions and got myself organised this dress would have been ready to wear to yum cha this morning (which, being a tea dress and all that would have been most appropriate), but let’s just say I was lucky to even make it out of pyjamas today!
Ohhh I adore that dress! It's amazing some of the things you can find at Wantirna Trash & Treasure…I wish all of the people selling toiletries and plastic toys would go somewhere else and make space for more car-boot type sellers. Still makes for a good Sunday morning though!I have only ever dyed paper with tea, so I'm not sure how the lace would turn out. I think it would look really sweet if you dyed it grey. Good luck!Claire xxPS thankyou for linking back to my blog! xox
It was a pleasure! You have such a lovely blog!I agree – I wish they'd just have trash and treasure rather than selling all the cheap Chinese plastic stuff… I also wish they'd set up something similar at Caribbean Gardens, that place just sits there doing nothing for most of the week when it could be used for craft or vintage markets at least once a month!
I've dyed fabric and softies with teabags, coffee and/or parisian essence. It's V. hard not to get blotches unless of course you want them and then it's hard to get enough. Good luck
yaiy. those are wonderful finds. i went to a charity shop on friday and a calvin klein shirt for £2. wohoo.
While I'm a fan of the tea-bag dyeing idea (I drink a LOT of tea too) I'd like to suggest a tomato red! It might be worth doing tea-bag dye first though to see how broderie reacts – the thread around the holey bits may dye darker or lighter than the fabric. If that's the case a stronger colour might produce a more striking effect! If I lived close by I'd definitely want to come and play on this project!
I think it's going to take me a while to get around to this one but I'm considering cutting it to make it more like a mini length, there's no way I'd wear it as-is… the stain problem is something I'm going to have to tackle too…
Hi,Cotton is hard to dye with tea. It will need to be mordanted first otherwise it is not going to take up the colour well. White silk however will dye a beautiful golden colour. Hope this helps!
Pingback: MSFW – my favourites | Style Wilderness
Pingback: Who says weddings are expensive? | Style Wilderness
Pingback: 結婚式にはお金がかかるって、誰が決めたの？