DIY; Dip Dyed Jumper

I'm really pleased with myself for figuring out how to dip dye a jumper in a neat graduated way so I thought I'd share with you. I've been wanted a grey dip dyed jumper for a little while now but I couldn't find one that was quite what I wanted so I bought a jumper to dip dye myself. I also bought a packet of Dylon hand dye in Antique Grey. Dylon dyes only dye natural fibres (cotton, silk, linen etc.) so i had a job finding a jumper that was cheap enough that I didn't mind if I accidentally messed up and ruined it. Primark was pretty much ruled out because I couldn't find a single jumper that wasn't synthetic. I have seen a dye called I-dye Poly, which dyes synthetics, but I've never used it and it seems expensive.

This isn't really a tutorial, more a description of what I did so you can do similar/get ideas for your own dyeing. I used; a pack of dylon hand dye, salt, a bucket and string.

I dyed my jumper in the shower so I could clean up the mess easily. All dyeing is a bit hit and miss and I have had things not work or not come out as expected, but I've also had a lot of things turn out nicely. First of all I put the jumper on it's hanger, then I made it so that the jumper was hanging up in my bucket, just touching the bottom. To do this I made a contraption using the hoover pipe, string and the top of the shower. The bf thought I was crazy but it did work.

Then I ignored all instructions on the packet of dye and made up a very concentrated mixture of dye using about half the dye powder (I didn't want as darker grey as the packet did, but Dylon don't have a very wide selection of colours), 500g of salt and only a little bit of boiling water, to go part way up the jumper.

Then every hour I added more water, meaning the dye was more dilute (and therefore a paler colour) but also going higher up the jumper. When the water/dye level was as high as I wanted, I took the jumper out of the bucket and let it drip off.

At this point the dye packet recommends you rince the dye off in cold water. I didn't want the white part of my jumper to go grey so I sprayed the jumper with the shower whist it was on the hanger.

Then I just popped in the washing machine on a cool wash, with things I didn't mind getting dye on.