bleach dyeing and an hommage to my pony legs

It all began with a pair of black jeans.

It began its life looking quite sharp, but - corroborating the fact that cheap fashion is often a complete waste of money-  it took about 3 cycles of washing to the frumpy, faded look it now had.

Which wouldn't necessarily have been a problem. Some people  look really good in faded black jeans. Usually, those people either have long elegant legs that stretch for miles, OR sport a really impressive beard. But I don't belong in either of those two groups, so the trousers had been banned to the back of my wardrobe, only to be pulled in sight when Joost and I had a passive aggressive argument about who should do the laundry.

Until the moment I decided to give them one last chance: I would either refashion them in a way that would make them acceptable again, or donate them to charity. As you can guess: I choose option number one :) And, since I had been dying to try bleach dyeing (Badum, tsss), and black denim is quite perfect for that, I decided to try my hand at what I shall now call....

Bleach-Twist-Tye-And-Dye-ing!

you'll need:

• a piece of dark, cotton clothing
• two rubber bands
• warm water in a container
• bleach
• an apron and household gloves

It is flippin' easy...

I began by taking the legs of my jeans, and twisting them inwards.

And well, I just kept twisting and twisting. Joost looked up from his work, scratched his beard and wondered what on earth his girlfriend was up to this time. "whatyadoing?" he asked. and when I explained my plans, he looked sceptical. "With bleach? is that going to work?" I assured him I would end up looking like the coolest kid on the block, and kept twisting.

When the legs were twisted enough for my liking ( you can rearrange some folds for a more balanced pattern) I also twisted/folded the top part of the jeans, and secured everything with two rubber bands. 

Just like that! Keep in ins that the outside of your package - backside in my case, will soak up more bleach and become lighter. If you don;t want that, rearrange your folds a bit. 

Right, most of the work is already done!
Next, I made I bath with warm water and bleach (~1:10) and tossed the jeans in.





 As you can see some parts kept floating, so I tossed placed a few plates on top to keep everything under water.

After about 15 minutes ( and some regular checking, since I suspect the times depends on your item of clothing) I decided it was ready. " It looks like soup!" Joost grinned.

So I rinsed....

oh my...! 

And waited a long time before it was dry enough to try it on...  (exciting!!)

And when I did, I realized that the combo of a tye dye effect and flared legs were a bit too hippy..

But no worries, it's a quick fix! I put my jeans on inside out, and pinned the legs to a cigarette shape.

like that!
PS: do you notice the very retro wallpaper that we found in one of the bedrooms upstairs? It's so ugly that I adore it! 

Under the sewing machine it went, and... done!

tadaa!!

I have to admit: I was a bit apprehensive about having to model the result of this refashion. Why? Because my legs are not the most elegant thing in the world.  A bit plump, you might say, and  Joost sometimes calls them endearingly "your strong pony legs" ( I assure you he really means it endearingly)

But well, what is elegance really worth? For all insecurities that I have, I do have the most practical legs that I know. They are really strong ( inherited that part from my father), very flexible ( inherited that part from my grandmother, who -well over 80- is still able to bend over with straight legs, and touch the ground like the ballerina that she should have been.) And well, the chubby part that I inherited from stress and chocolate is probably also worth something.

They have cycled me to the north of Sweden, jumped me through ballet lessons, and mean that whenever Joost calls my legs 'pony-like', I can simply hoist him on my back and gallop him through the living room like the little pony that I am.

I'm writing this also to convince myself, because I too get carried away quite often by the instagram-lifes of others, where it sometimes seems that the only way to happiness is having a photogenic body... But.. having a functional one goes a long way too. So therefore, back to proudly showing you my refashioned jeans!

"I suck at taking photo's of my own legs, please help me!" I exclaimed.

"mmm-kay" Joost muttered

"No, my face also needs to be in there!"  I exclaimed, forgetting that I still had my bleary eyed sunday morning face on.

"mmm-kay" Joost muttered.

and yep, The wall is 

"oh no! My eyes are all puffy!" I exclaimed while looking at the first shots. "Oh wait, I'll think of something!"

"mmm-kay" Joost muttered

that'll do!

things got weird...

BewarenBewaren

For an experiment, I'm quite excited about the result! 

love to hear your thoughts about it!