I think we've found my first project that I'm actually giving up on. We've had some bumps in the road thus far, but dyeing flower petals is the first official Failure with a capital F.
I found this tutorial from the Dollar Tree website awhile back. I knew that I was going to want to dye them a dark color, so I was a little skeptical of how well it would work. But after looking at the picture below (from their website), I figured that since the purple was pretty dark, I surely could do dark blue too.
The Process
1. I bought 5 packs of flower petals from Dollar Tree ($5) and Rit Liquid Dye in both Navy Blue and Teal ($6ish). Since our color isn't exactly Navy, I thought the teal might provide a little bit of green into the mix. I thought about dyeing the petals teal first, letting them dry and then re-dyeing them navy, but I scratched that idea and just mixed the two colors together. That could be the reason that this process failed, but in all honesty, I really think it is the type of fabric of the petals that inhibited the whole process.
2. I put 2 quarts of water in a pot, added 4oz of each color of dye and 1/4 cup of salt. I heated the mixture on Low for 5 minutes before adding in the flower petals. I bought WAY more flower petals than I could fit in the pot, so I just added enough that they were still fully immersed in the dye.
3. And let simmer covered on low for 3-6 hours. I stirred the petals about once per hour. After 6 hours, the flower petals still weren't the right color, so I kept them on even longer. I actually took some of the petals out, rinsed them and let them dry. Hoping that they needed a second round of dye, I put them back in the dye (but it didn't make a difference).
4. At bedtime, after the petals had been simmering about 9-10 hours, I decided to to call it quits. I rinsed the petals and set them out on an old towel to dry. I wasn't very happy with the color, but thought I'd sleep on it (and that they might magically change color overnight).
5. By morning, I had the same lavender-blue flower petals that resembled neither the navy blue or the teal dye that I had used. I got out my peacock color swatch to compare the differences between our actual color and promptly decided that it was "unacceptable" (with a snobby British accent). I didn't have much hope for trying to dye the petals a second time, so the project was officially crossed off the to-do list.
If you recall, I was going to use the flower petals to decorate around our centerpieces. I had been playing around with either using the flower petals or paper punched hearts.
So I guess we'll be using the hearts instead! I'm actually okay with this because it means I get to pick out fun paper that matches our color scheme! Here's a quick example using some of the paper samples I ordered in search for our invitation paper (post coming soon on that!)
So there it is. My big Failure. If anyone would like my lavender-blue flower petals, feel free to message me and I'll send them to you!
Thankfully, I only wasted about $10. What were your crafting/wedding failures?
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