50 Shades of Grey

This post is not about the New York Times best seller-- hate to dissapoint you all.  From what I've heard those books are basically porn and that is a little more then this conservatively-raised girl can handle.

One of the biggest questions I have gotten recently is about dying my HOVAS slipcovers.  If you remember correctly, JEGs and I became completely enamored with the HOVAS and a year later we finally snagged one for ourselves.  We got the white slipcover for it's ease of cleaning and I had dreams of dying it a deep smokey grey.  It was going to be uh-mah-zing (can I get a high five for the Penny Hartz reference?)

Uh-mah-zing it was not.   My first attempt I tried to dye it in our washing machine.  I thought I was smarter then the directions and didn't leave it in long enough because I was afraid it would turn out too dark.  When it was finished, the color was washed out and you could see a lot of areas where the fabric had creased and the dye settled.  I decided to try again, this time leaving it for the correct amount of time, hoping that the extended time would give the dye more time to reach all of the fabric.

On the right is my first attempt, and the left is my second attempt.   The color was darker, but  you could still see the marbled effect as a result of the dye settling into the creases of the fabric.  That's when I realized that my washer was not big enough to handle the size of these slip covers.

So I turned to my bathtub, thinking that would be a better fit (pun slightly intended).  After hours and hours of soaking fabric and running up and down the stairs with pots of boiling water, this is what I have to show for it

This couch is the decor equivalent of a drunk chick.  From far away she looks like she might have it together, but as you get closer, you realize that she is all over the place, and what the hell is that stain on her pants?

Even after soaking in the tub, the cushions still look marbled.

I was trying to convince myself that it has that 'denim, lived-in' feel, but it's not working.

The biggest problem is the skirt.  There are five parts to the slip covers:  each of the four cushions and the rest is one big slip cover.  And by big, I mean huge.  Way too big for our tub.  One packet of dye was not enough for all of this fabric and there are areas that clearly were not touched by the dye at all

At this point, JEGs and I have decided to "live with it" for a little bit (read:  I am tired of dealing with it).  We have a brand new white slip cover waiting in the wings, but my stubborn side won't admit defeat yet.  Oh no no, I will not raise the white slipcover flag.  Not yet.

Misery loves company: have you ever tried to dye something that didn't come out the way you thought?

Always & Forever,
  ME