Dyeing my Lululemon Define Jacket to Hide a Stain

You might have noticed that I have a love affair...with lululemon that is. There's something just magical about being swaddled in Luon, and I've spent enough of my hard earned money there to have a drawer full of the stuff.

One of my all time favourite lulu products is the Define Jacket. I have three, a grey/black one, a red one and a blue one.

I love this jacket for casual wear and running, it's the perfect length, it doesn't ride up, it keeps you warm but not hot and you can stash things in the pockets. In fact I ran 2 10km races this year in my blue one.

Only my blue one isn't blue anymore. Remember the pink pants I wore to the Calgary Taste the Trucks food truck thing (here) well turns out they bled in the wash... and managed to leave an huge pink/purple stain on the back of my favourite blue define jacket.

So I figured, well I've had this sweater for over 2 years now, but I love it (and it represents $100 so I don't want to get rid of it unless I have to) so why not try to salvage it (I mean it can't get any more ruined).

A step-by-step guide on Dyeing your Stained Lululemon

1. Buy your dye, remember you are overdying so the colour you will get will be a combination of the old colour and the new, plus you want to cover the stain. Since my stain was pink and my lulu was blue, I bought a single package of Rit dye in Fushia, hoping for a purple final colour. You can get Rit online, or at most crafty type stores, I picked mine up at Micheals and it cost about $3.

2. Put your lulu into a bucket of hot (but not boiling water) I heated about 4litres of water in a kettle until just before it got to boiling. You want enough water that your lulu is just covered.

3. Premix the dye with half a litre of hot water, this way when you add it to the bucket you get a more even dye. Add it into the bucket by pushing your lulu out of the way and pouring it into the water (do not pour directly onto lulu).

4.Using your hands (in gloves) or a stirring apparatus, you want to mix/swirl/agitate the lulu in the dye for ~15minutes. If you keep it moving you will get a more even dye, if you don't you will get splotches.

5. Add half a cup of salt to half a litre of hot water, dissolve, then add into bucket. This will help set the dye. Again mix/swirl/agitate for about 15min.

6. Add a tbsp of laundry detergent to the bucket. This will also help set the dye. Again mix/swirl/agitate for about 5min.

7.Dump the bucket and lulu into your kitchen sink (or laundry sink, caution the dye can stain sinks and tubs, so that's why you want to go with your stainless steel one in the kitchen). Rinse lulu under warm water until the water begins to run clear (this took many many rinses, that thing held a lot of dye).

8. Hang to dry over the sink overnight.

Now I am going to wash my lulu in a regulalar old fashioned washing machine, by itself, before I wear it, as I don't want to risk having residual dye turn my skin/clothes pink. But I tried it on just to see how it looked!

Now this picture lighting fades the colour, it's actual a bit brighter purple. As you can see the dye won't change the zippers, it also doesn't take on the stitching they use (something to keep in mind when selecting colours). Interestingly the elastic loop on the back dyed much darker, and it has no effect on the reflective lulu logo either.

Overall I'd call this project a success, and I feel like I can wear this sweater again. This is a great thing to try if you've ruined any of your lulu in the wash (or if you've had issues with colours bleeding in general). I'll update this post once I've washed it a few times, and once I've run in it to see if it still preforms like it should.