I have two white beach tops which I love. I bought one the first summer after I moved here and the other from a year or two later and wore them a lot.

At the time I wore tinted sunscreen all the time and as a result a lot of my tops were stained around the neck. I’ve tried bleaching them but I can’t seem to get rid of the grimy look.

I didn’t want to throw them out, so I decided to dye them.

But being me and being impatient, I couldn’t let it wait till I found a place on Paros which sold fabric dye, so I looked up natural fabric dyeing online. Turns out the whole mordant thing was too much for me, so I decided to just go for it and see what I’d get. After all, the tops were at the end of their life as they were, I didn’t have much to lose…

Basically, what I learned in my reading was that anything that stains will dye fabric. Duh. It will fade over time, but heck, you can always re-dye, right?

Nothing stains like turmeric. It’s one reason I dislike using it. It stains everything: the sink, any tupperware you put leftovers in, the table, everything it touches.

What could possibly go wrong?

So, I put the turmeric I had in my cupboard for the last year into the biggest pot I own, added a pinch of salt (’cause I remembered somewhere that that helps set colours, but really, I had no idea). Once it boiled, I let it cool a little so I didn’t cook my tops, and dipped them in, stirring with a metal spoon.

I tried two methods. First, I tried an ombre with one top, but being me and being impatient (and being sloppy) I let the dyed bits touch the white bits, so I had to drizzle some dye onto the white to make it not look so odd.

This is the result after rinsing but before washing:

As you can see, I didn’t even manage to dye it evenly on both sides… oops. Didn’t plan that out very well.

With the other top I decided to relive my youth and used rubber bands to tie dye it. I sunk it all into the dye and this is the result after rinsing and prior to washing:

And here is the result after washing twice. A much softer yellow, but still pretty. This top looks better than the other one. I think the other one will need re-dyeing…

Note to self: buy more turmeric.

Anyway, thought I’d share my experiment in case you have turmeric in your pantry that you aren’t sure what to do with.

z

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