Refashioning a Maxi Dress

There were a couple things wrong with this Old Navy dress, which I bought a year or so ago.  First, it had somehow acquired two small holes right below the knee.  Second, it was gray, which is a color that washes me out. 

With the recent dying success of Suze and others, I figured I'd give it a shot.  Plus, it gave me a chance to play with my new sewing machine more with simple projects before I take on something more complicated.

First, I chopped off the bottom, holey part of the dress.

The cutest part of the dress was the flower section at the bottom, so I sewed a chunk of that to the bottom of the short dress.  The length now came to just below my knee.

Next was the scary part.  I followed the directions on the RIT dye box, adding some salt (It said to use a cup, but I just poured some in.  I'm sure it was less than a cup.) and a little bit of detergent.  I put the wet garment in--very important to make sure the whole thing is wet.  I noticed a streak of lighter dye when I took it out that must've been a dry patch.  It was very subtle, though, and it seemed to disappear after it dried.

The color is not a vibrant orange, but I wasn't really expecting it to be since I started with gray fabric.  Also, I'm not sure if I left it in the washer long enough.  Looks pretty good, though!  I think I'm going to like it a lot better than the gray.

And, inspired by Bekah and her merrymaking, I was able to quickly fashion a turban out of the holey part of the fabric.  Bonus!