I wasn’t happy with the white arms and I decided they needed to be painted. After I gessoed them, I realized that the legs, which show under the dress, would also look odd in the white of the fabric… but I didn’t want to paint them because then they’d get stifff, and then the shoes I made might not fit and stopping the paint at the ankles would be too weird- and now I am getting frustrated…

So, after thinking about it for a day, I decided to take a risk and experiment. I mixed some Rit dye (about a teaspoon of peach) into some water, in a half pint take-out container. The granules from the dye were not dissolving so I tried microwaving the mixture- bring it up to a boil, then stirring. It still had sediment that I couldn’t get rid of, so I went back to the project at hand. I thought about painting the dye on… I did a test which reminded me of something I had tried before with tea dyeing- it comes out blotchy. So, I had the idea of using my spritz bottle. Before I transferred the dye mixture into the bottle, I sprayed the body with enough clear water to make it damp. Then I poured the dye into the spritzer. I sprayed away until it was pretty evenly covered… it looked a lot like a rash, but not too bad, and I had hopes that by waiting, it might even out.

I came back an hour later. The color had not evened out- actually it looked worse. There were bright pink spots growing on the damp fabric- little bits of dye, unmixed. It looked pretty bad. Time for more experimenting. I got a piece of old towel and wet the corner- I started rubbing the worst of the rash like blotches. Well- they blended in! I rubbed over all the dyed areas with a very damp, almost drippy, towel and the color really evened out.

It is now almost dry and it looks good. I might put another coat on… maybe. I still need to paint the arms.