Well, we all know how expensive NYDJ (Not Your Daughters Jeans) are. So what happens when your $300 investment isn’t quite as pristine as it once was?
So the question we want answered is…can you really dye your NYDJ’s?
Well, it turns out you can…sort-of.
I found a preloved pair of NYDJs in the second hand shop and they fit really, really well. The only issue is that they were really too faded – according to my Type 4 guide, I should only wear really dark denim, hmmm well after paying only about $5 for the jeans we didn’t have much to lose – so I thought we’d try dying them.
First I bought a huge stock-pot – cost about $30 – I know! I did look around for ages for a second-hand one, but stock pots are actually quite hard to come by – go figure. 30L is actually quite big, smaller would have been ok too.
Then went down to Spotlight and the saleslady recommend Rit dye in dark Navy – about $10. She also suggested to use the hot boiling water method for dying jeans to get the best result. She appeared to be the expert as it was her job to dye her bosses old jeans…arh…ok…
Then we decided to use the gas BBQ outside and the stove-top method. You can use your washing machine, but I didn’t relish the idea of having a shade of blue in every successive wash – the instructions assured me this wouldn’t be the case…but still….
My partner decided to throw a pair of his camo pants in as well…which probably wasn’t a good idea.
I think if I did this again, I’d just concentrate on one pair of jeans at a time.
We followed the instructions on the dye packet – probably with not as much stirring as we should have done – two pairs of jeans in a pot is actually quite hard to stir properly. You tend to end up swilling, rather than stirring.
I also think the trick is to pre-soak the jeans slightly longer, we just did a quick dip in a bucket – again with two pairs of heavy, wet jeans – not ideal.
I made sure to include plain old table salt in the final rinse, as well as the first time I washed them. Remember, to always wash in cold, and turn your jeans inside out.
Oh yes, I know the pics aren’t that good – I did this quite some time before I started the blog… better ones next time!
THE RESULT:
I was pretty happy with the end result.
Yes.. they’re not perfect, you can see a few places that needed more dye saturation – to be fair these jeans had uneven patches to start with, and I would definitely only do one pair of jeans at a time in future.
Surprisingly, the cotton stitching still retained its colour – it didn’t turn navy. So is still a nice contrast.
IN SUMMARY:
What did it cost:
$5 – NYDJ (Bargain I know… they don’t call me the Finder for nothing!)
$10 – dye
$2 – Table salt
Total cost – less than $20 for a dark pair of denim NYDJ jeans; a tad more if we apportion the cost of the stock pot to this and future dye jobs.
$30 – Stock pot – can reuse again and again.
VERDICT
Worth it – totally! I love these jeans, even for just wearing around the house – super comfy.
Here’s a video from the Rit site about dying clothes on the stovetop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgG71U2grZE