Frugal fun: Dyeing My Wedding Dress

"After" - short and black/gray

After our intimate wedding in the Outer Banks, Mike and I threw a party for friends in Houston when I was seven months pregnant. The dress was a long white BCBG dress that was a few sizes bigger than normal.  (It has an empire waist to make room for a baby belly). Well, fast-forward about three years and I'm a few months postpartum and I find myself a few sizes bigger than normal again. I had a friend's wedding to attend a few weeks ago and I didn't want to spend money on a new dress that I will hopefully shrink out of in another month or two (or six). I figure, I might as well try dyeing the dress and hemming it to cocktail length.

I read a few blog posts about dyeing wedding dresses and gleaned some useful information: Basically, have no expectations and ignore the warnings on the dye box.

So, without further ado, some photos:

"Before" - long and white

A close-up of the before fabric. I think the flower overlay is chiffon with like velvety flowers and the lining is nylon.

Process photo - dress in black dye! So nerve-racking!

I am really happy with the result.  After I cut the dress off, and dyed it in a bucket, I let it dry completely.  The two layers of fabric (that were dry-clean-only) shrunk to different lengths, which I was kind of expecting.  Then, I took the dress to the tailor to get the hem finished. (I have horrible to modest sewing skills. I did not trust myself to hem such delicate fabrics.) Then, I wore it to the wedding and danced the night away with this adorable flower girl (who also happens to be my firstborn)...