Jean genie

Before I moved to England I created for myself a capsule wardrobe – a curated collection of tops, bottoms and shoes that would mix and match.  On the whole it’s served its purpose. It’s been so easy to put together outfits, that feel like ‘me’ and apart from a few purchases for climatic reasons, special occasions or work purposes I’ve spent little money on clothes this year.

As I was putting away clean laundry the other day, I spotted a pair of jeans I brought with me from Australia. They made the cut as they were comfortable, fitted well and tucked easily into my Bean boots (which have proven to be probably the hardest working item in my wardrobe this year) . While I’ve worn them a little bit, their slightly faded shade hasn’t felt ‘right’. In Australia in the warmer, brighter days they felt perfect with light, airy tops. In England with the cooler, greyer weather I’ve been gravitating more towards darker colours and time and time again, those jeans have been rejected for my darker wash pair.

So I started doing some research…

There was nothing wrong with the jeans and they still fitted nicely, so tossing them aside to buy a new, darker pair felt wasteful. After falling down a few online rabbit holes, clicking from one link to another, I discovered a fabric dye to be used in a washing machine, specially created to revive the colour of old jeans. Boom.

When I mentioned it to Adam, he said it was a quite well known brand in the U.K. and he’d used the dye before. I’d never heard of it (maybe I’m the only person in the world?!) but after reading quite a few online reviews I decided to give it a go on my faded jeans.

I picked up my pod of dye for £6.50 at a local retailer. Once home, I read the instructions carefully and got started on my jean revival.

As you can see, the jeans were a mid-blue with large areas of fading about mid-leg.

I wet the jeans and gave them a good wring-out before popping them in the machine with the dye pod (the dye is like a fine powder). You wash the jeans once with the dye and then a second time with washing powder. You then run the machine a third time empty, to remove all traces of dye from it.

The whole process only took a few hours and to be honest, I’m amazed at the results. My jeans are now a deep, dark indigo. It’s like I have a brand new pair in my wardrobe.  It was straight forward, there was no mess and I’ve since washed more clothes in my machine without any discolouration.

I’m quite chuffed at my little find and will definitely keep it in mind for future ‘revivals’. There is a black dye, which I imagine would be quite handy for brightening up black jeans, which always tend to fade over time. I actually left a favourite pair of black jeans in Australia for that very reason.

It’s an economical way to give yourself something ‘new’ and it means my capsule wardrobe lives a little longer.

You know what I’ll be wearing this weekend ;). x

This post is not affiliated with Dylon – I was just so happy with my little DIY project I thought I would share.