DIY Colored Skinnies

A few weeks ago, I talked about how I was loving these green jeans that have been all over pinterest lately.

Via

Well, I couldn't get them out of my mind.  I needed green skinny jeans.  Yes, I am aware of how ridiculous that statement sounds, but sometimes things stick in my brain and just won't leave until I have them.  Like when I really want a doughnut (right. now.).

I couldn't find a pair I liked in my very meager budget, so I decided to to find a way to make my own.  I love a good DIY project and after looking at a few tutorials online, I was confident I could finally get some green skinny jeans I convinced myself I must have.

I started with some white jeans from Goodwill (which were still more than I wanted to pay, the Goodwills around here are expensive, yo).

The Before-I bought two pairs in case something went horribly wrong

I started by making them 'skinny'.  I didn't take any pictures of this process because it took a lot longer than I expected, and you can find much better tutorials than I could ever write.  The basic idea was to turn the white jeans inside out, lay a pair of skinny jeans that fit over them to pin where you should sew, and sew them up.  Pretty easy process if even I can do it.

Then came the dye!  I dyed my pants in our sink, because I didn't want to risk ruining our washer and our tap water gets extremely hot.  I used two packets of the dark green Rit powder dye, stirred for an entire episode of Merlin, and got this:

Pretty close, right?  The dye took really well, there's only one place where it is a little uneven, but it's only noticeable if you're really looking.

What you can't see is that these pants have a serious case of mom-jean-waist happening.  I was apparently too excited to find a pair of white jeans that somewhat fit that I completely ignored how ill fitting the waist of these pants are on me.  I still wear them, but they make me feel like I should have a couple of teenage kids annoying me while drink wine at an inappropriate hour.

I was so pleased with the green pair, I decided to continue the fun with red dye on my other pair of pants.

The color turned out to be a little brighter than I was anticipating, but aren't they fun?  And so festive for this time of year.  Yes, I may have been called Santa at the mall the day I took this picture, but whatever, haters gonna hate.  I like them.  Even if they did ruin one of my husband's favorite shirts (sorry babe, I'll wash them separately from now on!).

I kind of want to dye pants in all the colors now, but I'm going to hold off until I can find some that actually fit well.  But, for about $10 per pair of pants (dye included), I'm definitely going to try this project again.

What do you think?  Would you ever sew and/or your own pants to take part in a trend?  What color should I dye my next pair of pants?