Rescuing an online fabric purchase

I live in an area with very few fabric shops, there are in fact only three! I have a choice of the haberdasheries in Fenwicks or John Lewis, or convince my sister (who has a car while I currently don't) to drive me out to Dainty Supplies. This would really limit my options for clothes making if it weren't for the joy that is online fabric shopping. Here I am opened up to a world (literally) of options! I buy probably 90% of my fabric online, and 80% of the time this is very succesful, and I end up getting what I expected and loving what I got. But there are exceptions to this.

Colour! Getting the right colour can be very hit and miss!! And recently I fell fowl of this. I would like to say that all of the shops do say colour may not be exact, resolution of computer screen bla bla bla... But this time it was a bit bum. The colour on the screen was grey with some pink in it, although I should have really known from the name 'capuccino' what I was going to get...

Yep... Brown!! Not an unpleasant colour, and my God is this fabric soft and lovely quality... But I knew as soon as I opened the packet that I'd never wear something that colour (see previous note on brown jersey dress). So I figured, to rescue the fabric... Dye it!

So I got me some Dylon (in Burlesque Red don't you know), a bucket, some rubber gloves, and off I went..

Dying fabric by hand is really super easy, you just need the above mentioned ingredients and some table salt (you can use ground sea salt if you want... But I'm not rich so..). The dye packet simply asks to pre mix the dye in 500mls of hot water (doesn't even need to be boiling), then fill your bucket up with warm water and add the salt first...

Ooooh cloudy.... At this point I would recommend finding a nice old rug you don't mind getting a splash of dye on... Just in case.

Then you mix in your jug of dye...

Being VERY careful not to ruin your old rug. And pop in your fabric!

The next bit is very important, and very simple, and I never seem to get it right.... Smush your fabric up in the water so the dye gets to all of it evenly. The instructions say to agitate your fabric, which I find hilarious.

Leave your fabric to sit for 45 minutes.. Agitating it regularly (he he)...

Then rinse it in cold water before popping it into the washing machine for a cool wash.

I mean, what's easier than that?! I didn't leave mine the full 45 minutes as I just wanted a red tint rather than the deep red promised, though I love the colour it was when it was wet!!

Once dried I now have...

And if you look closely you can see variations in the shade... I'm not a very good agitator apparently, it gives it a subtle tie dyed effect, which luckily I really like. This fabric is still wonderfully soft, and is now in the pile of jerseys destined to become cosy t shirts. Crisis averted.