Adventures with dyeing: Boden coat

It occurred to me when I posted my last dyeing post that I think most of the people who read this are very accomplished dyers and my little machine dyeing escapades are not that adventurous, but I will keep posting about them because I am always pretty excited with how things turn out but have a terrible habit of taking a few pictures and then never sharing them anywhere. 

Such as - possibly my most successful attempt yet - the Boden coat. 

I actually blogged about buying this coat back in 2008. All summer long, I had marked extra (and this was, I believe, real paper extras) to build up the funds for a purple and purple spotty coat from Boden. It would have been my first proper coat. For some reason, I did not buy it - instead, I bought this cord version, which was machine washable and warmer and cheaper. It has been an exceptionally wearable and useful coat. There are many, many picture of me wearing it over the years. Here are my favourite things about it:

1. As stated, it is machine washable - and it has been through the machine many times. 

2. It only has four buttons but they are spaced so well that one could wear it as a garment. 

3. The third button down nips in at exactly the right point, just above my waist, to create a very flattering empire line. 

4. It is warm and, although it really isn't waterproof at all, it will absorb the rain and keep me dry. It does then need a day off to dry out, though. 

5. It has good deep pockets. 

I have a number of coats now but this is the one I kept coming back to, until I didn't. I realised a couple of years back that I never reached for it anymore and tried to think about why. It was clean and I'd resecured the buttons, but it had done that thing that navy garments do when they are washed a lot, which is that it had started to become a little brown, especially around the collar. It had gone from faded navy to really very faded and actually perhaps it is grey now navy. I might have used the word drab. Even worse, it was kind of patchy.

I did think about giving it to charity, but I thought that it might end up in the ragging pile and I really think this is the perfect coat. Boden don't make anything like it since they took that VC money and got really big - they do some cord blazers now and then but nothing you can put in a machine to wash (actually you can't even spot clean them, they are very poorly dyed, I fear to get caught in the rain in mine). So I decided I would try to revive it, based on Mr Z's old adage of 'If it's not something you're wearing anyway, you might as well try anything because you've got nothing to lose'.

I removed all the buttons and the little faux belt on the back. I said goodbye to the colour of the lining, which I realised was also going to go, though exactly how I could not be sure. I then machine dyed it - this one took three pods of navy machine dye. Sadly I forgot to include the faux back belt so I had to scrap that, but I was not overly sad because the results of the re-dye were splendid. 

Here's Lenin, inspecting it. 

When I say it is like a whole new coat...I have had many compliments, many people asking where I got it, many more wears out of something that had been sadly neglected for too many years. Here it is, hamming it up with me on the streets of Almaty a month after it was dyed:

Just a whole new lease of life! It dyed very evenly; the lining retained its pattern, if you look hard enough, and the sleeve lining stayed olive green. There is a little bunching on the inside around the hem, probably as a result of being washed and spun three times on the bounce without any shaking/smoothing, but I have taken to fidgeting with it when I'm wearing it, to work the inside seams flat again and, anyway, it's one of those things I don't think you would notice unless you were wearing it. 

I do think this is what clothes should be, right? This is going into its 18th winter. I live in a city and work in a school so my coats are not going to take a lot of abuse. I hugely appreciate something that I can clean myself and rework when it gets a bit past it. Kind of sad that Boden don't espouse those values any more. 

Adventures with dyeing: orange playsuit

Mother Hand taught me about machine dyeing clothes, a long, long time ago. She used to dye lots of things when she was younger. I forgot about this for a long time but, in the covid era, my memory came back. I am a lover of strong, saturated colour. I think fashion has preferred muted tones and soft beiges for a while. But I have started to see this as a blank canvas. 

The playsuit has become the garment of my 40s. I live in them during the holidays and I am constantly on the look out for new ones. I made over and dyed a couple of playsuits back in 2022: both from Tesco; one a pale green Mrs Hinch jumpsuit that I cut the legs off and dyed turquoise, another a beige linen creation with a poorly scaled belt that I cut up and fashioned into something to stop the straps from slipping down, then dyed bright pink. Both still going strong.

Fanciest hotel bathroom ever. Any excuse to share this picture again, it's one of my faves. 

So, anyway, when Sea Salt brought out the Salt Air linen playsuit with a button over the shoulder I had to have it (I've linked it but if the link has gone dead it's because I bought it in 2024). It came in two colours that I wouldn't have chosen, so I chose the sand colour. I tried it on when it arrived and Mr Z, who is helpfully blunt, said it looked like I was wearing a flour sack. The colour does not work for me. I'm sure it would work for others. 

This is the back. I should make a point of taking pictures of garments properly before I mess with them, but I still remember when I went to machine dye a red dress from Boden, laid it over the counter for the before shot, wondered what the smell was, realised I had laid it over the toaster that was making my breakfast and burnt the back out. So gutted. Dyed it anyway because the dye was already in the machine; kept it for about 3 years before I finally had to admit it was not salvageable. I keep telling you - borderline hoarder. 

Anyway, I went with orange for this playsuit and it took the dye so well. Linen always does but I was very pleased. I keep meaning to change the buttons for something a bit jazzier but there's no need, really. Here I am playing in it in fountains in Skanderberg Square last summer. It is a playsuit, after all. 

If you are feeling the need to machine dye something and you've somehow stumbled across this post looking for comfort - you do definitely need to follow the instructions on the tub; yes, you need to run that many cycles; yes, you absolutely must weigh your fabric in advance (ask me how I know); no, it won't ruin your machine - I did once end up with the seals dyed a bit navy but they were colourfast and stayed navy until the machine broke, many years later when a bearing went; yes, it will be colour fast afterwards. If the thread used for stitching is nylon it will stay white but it's no biggie - the stitching on the pink one, above, remained white but you'd have to get very close to me to notice. I use the Dylon tubs and they really could not make it any easier. I'd like to level up and start colour mixing so I get custom colours, really, but I am also trying not to buy more clothes until the old ones wear out. 

Also I don't want to say I am a trendsetter but I have just noticed Sea Salt have the long version of this in a strong orange this summer. Just saying.