Dressin' it Up!

So as my frequent posts hinted at, I have to go to my cousin's wedding soon and I have to look decent.  Soooooo I went Shopping O.o  I think I fell in love with JCPenny's sales rack!  I bought the previously mentioned long black slinky dress and the short white sun dress (which has been dyed) but today I happened to stumble upon a very cute little blue dress!!!  So for about 20 bucks I picked up a little "princess" dress as my mom termed it.  A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E.  It also happens to be very glittery so it got its own dress bag.  As you can tell I'm excited!  Beware: I will be looking for every opportunity to prance around in fun dresses!

Getting back on track: The Wedding.  An outside wedding down in Virginia in 100 degree weather, this promises to be veeeerrrryyyy interesting.  My max temperature is 83 degrees in the shade, which is why I sprung for the little white sun dress that was on sale at the store my dad has seen too many credit card bills from.  Since only the bride should wear white to a wedding and the color washes me out... although I do have a microscopic tan from walking in the mornings... I decided to dye the dress PURPLE!!!  (P.S. That dot is just on the camera lens and it still needs to be ironed!)

I used the violet iDye from my favorite artistic brand, Jacquard.  Tulip is good and inexpensive (especially for projects you don't care too much about or when you're dyeing large quantities for a quilt) but Jacquard is the brand that I bought when I got all of my fabric paints and such.  This was a new method of dyeing for me... simmering dye/water bath for half an hour (I let it go for 2 hours) then ring and wash.  BUT IT WAS REALLLY COOL!!!  The dye packet is actually dissoluble so instead of cutting it open, losing dye, and making a mess you just throw the whole thing in and stir!  MAGIC!

The stitching was polyester so it didn't dye as well as the cotton dress and is clearly visible but besides a little place where they "un-noticeably" pinned down the pleats (which can be written over with a purple permanent marker) it just looks cool and different... but I think it detracts a little bit away from the cool belt-like artistic pleats.  Whatever.  I like!

I was surprised how well the dye took to the zipper... I expected it to remain white and I'd just hide it under my arm and ignore it... the glory of side zippers.  BUT the plastic actually absorbed some dye and is now a light lavender color... this picture is a little undescriptive for the purpose of judging the color of the zipper but it is great to see the real color for the dress!  I <3 this dye! (I got to catch up on the last season of Sanctuary while I stirred this pot and I have to say the Druid is my favorite character by FAR... who cares if he's Jack the Ripper?!)

Also I might be adapting my old purse that I made awhile ago to go with my purple Renaissance Faire costume.  It's supposedly in the chenille style although it's not frizzy enough to really be considered chenille.  Anyway its about the right color, I like it a lot, and it has an interesting batik pattern!  (I <3 Batiks!  I want to make an entire quilt out of them!!!!)

Also when at JCPenny's I picked up a cute little scarf that will go nicely with my dress and other fancy occasions!

So the only thing I'm missing a close up are my new shiny black dress shoes and the purple waxed string neckless my sister got my mom from Brazil... I happen to wear it a lot with my Renaissance dress and other Purple dresses. But if you look closely it is in this picture with all of my other fun accessories and my hand dyed sun dress!!  Finally I'm all ready for this wedding!

Yes, I am aware that I've never actually posted a picture of me wearing the dress... and somehow my picture of Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean keeps on creeping into my pictures!  Too Bad I <3 Jack Sparrow more!