Skip to content

Dixie DIY

Dixie
Categories:Uncategorized
Tags:

DIY Fails – galaxy print dress

(I cannot be seen in public in this hideous dress)

Damn you Pinterest for making me think that every one of those “pin now, read later” posts are a good idea to try. In fact, there’s a whole blog for Pinterest Fails and this week I have two to submit.

One fail was a lackluster diy hair experiment. The other fail was this dress – it’s supposed to be a DIY galaxy print dress. I first saw it here and then Elisalex gave it a shot as well. Both of theirs turned out pretty good, I thought.

Here’s the deets – lay your item of clothing flat (in my case an old, tired target shirt dress that I never wore anymore, so no big loss). Mix bleach and water in a spray bottle (I experimented with different amounts) and spray over your garment and let dry. Then take fabric spray paint and spray over the shirt all artistic like. Finally use a small paint brush and some fabric paint and dab stars and nebula and what-not all over the place.

Uhhhh, yeah…

(is that andromeda? no, it’s blobdromeda)

Problem #1: I got carried away. With everything – paint, bleach, the whole shebang. I wanted the bleached areas to be whiter like this girl’s dress and less orange so I kept adding more bleach and I let bleach “pool” in places which only made blobs of orange rather than a floaty milky-way. My fabric just wasn’t going to get white.

Problem #2: Those “blobs” never blended together, especially the ones in the back. The seam line kept the bleach from moving.

Problem #3: I used the same brand of spray paint as both tutorials but I only bought three colors – metalic silver, and non metalic yellow and purple. The yellow and purple completely soaked in, even on the bleached parts. You can’t even tell that there is any paint at all! Only the silver showed up so I went a little spray crazy and the whole thing looks like a sparkly mess.

Problem #4: I don’t know what the f— stars are supposed to look like! I just painted spots of blue and white and yellow all over the place with no real plan and you know what? They look like paint spots, not stars. Sadface.

 

Will I try this one again? Meh, I doubt it. It’s not that I don’t like the style but I just don’t think I have the ability to tell myself to stop spraying more bleach and just let it look more natural, ya know what I mean? I have no restraint!

Have you experienced any Pinterest Fails?

Related makes:

Avatar
Dixie

Comments (31) for post “DIY Fails – galaxy print dress”

  • I actually think this looks really good! I posted so many galaxy print tutorials this summer and looked at so many DIYs people had done on Tumblr and the consensus was that this bleach technique works best on 100% cotton and that you rinse the material out after the bleaching process then begin the paint splattering. I get what you are saying about the seams keeping the bleach pooled in certain spots. But I love posts like this because they tell you what not to do and that is as important as telling you what to do 🙂

    • Hmm, this dress was 100% cotton and I actually ran it through a quick cycle in the wash after bleaching but before painting. Elisalex’s t-shirt doesn’t get that white, either, maybe it just depends.

  • I have to laugh, because sometimes browsing through Pinterest all I see is one disaster after another just waiting to happen. What I mean is, Pinterest seems full of beautiful photographs designed to goad DIYers to undertake ridiculous projects… like turning a bed into a porch swing (does anyone even think about the structural support you would need for that?). This one doesn’t seem so crazy though. Oh well. Live and learn!

    • …uh, i actually attempted the porch bed thing. i say attempted because i never got around to hanging it. i lost steam after sewed the mattress cover. but I built the base and screwed in the hooks. i definitely thought a lot about the weight and support of it. maybe one day i’ll get around to destroying my porch roof 😉

  • Love that you posted a fail! I think the front looks okay actually, but I agree with you about the blobs on the back. 🙂 I’ll just stay on the lookout for one of those (pre-printed) fabulous galaxy prints… 😉

  • I really like most of this dress! Its just the one blob at the back, nevermind at least you had the courage to try it out! I would say if you tried again your likely to get it right, sometimes things take a little trial and error. I would still wear it with a long cardi!
    x

    • Yeah, I might try again on something smaller like a t-shirt, you know, something where I won’t have blobs on my butt.

    • I went back to try re-spraying some more – the purple nozzle is clogged and I can’t un-clog it. 🙁 There goes half a bottle of fabric spray paint…

  • I wasn’t sure what I thought, so I asked my four-year-old. She said it looks chocolatey. But also dirty and messy. I hope it at least was fun to do.

  • I love the concept and the front is rather sassy. There is only one blob at the back doesn’t look so galaxy-ish. Mayhaps eat a Milky Way and ponder on this further (I had to include a lame food based pun…)

  • Love the concept, and I’m sorry yours didn’t turn out the way you wanted to! Dyes and bleach can be so finicky, good on you for giving it a go though!

  • I have to be honest, I don’t like it. I like the concept, but you’re right, it didn’t turn out right. The reason it didn’t bleach white is because it had polyester in it. When you bleach something that contains polyester, the polyester turns red. Good luck on your next foray. Consider this a muslin!

    • darn, because i thought it was 100% cotton… i just checked the tag – 96% cotton, 4% spandex (spandex?? it’s a shirt dress, why does it need to stretch????). good thing i never wore that dress anymore so no loss.

  • That’s funny, a whole blog for pinterest fails. I like the top half – it’d be cool as a funky little throw on “jacket”.

  • Sorry to disagree… I liked this dress and the galaxy application. I thought it looked punk: fierce and yet vulnerable.

Comments are closed.

SidebarComments (31)