Y'know, I really thought that this was going to be the year where I got my winter coat sorted early. I put in the online and real-life legwork and shortlisted these two lovelies from Zara as well as a longline Penneys puffer number, but ultimately none of them turned out to be The One.
And so a few weeks ago, with temperatures plummeting and in serious need of a warm stop-gap coat, I decided to revamp an old one that was tucked away in the back of the wardrobe. (I'm a terror for hoarding things with a view to rejigging them; does anyone else have a similar problem?) Anyway, this was a cream 3/4 length belted coat that I got in River Island five or maybe six years ago and, to coin a Mam-ism, it owed me nothing. I wore it to death for a few winters, and then when it got to the point where no amount of cleaning could take the vaguely grubby edge off it, I put it up safe with the intention of "doing something with it" at some future date.
One 500g bag of salt, a packet of canary yellow dye, and six new nautical-ish bronze buttons later, I reckoned it was safe to say that I'd done something with it. I was pretty thrilled with my handiwork: I reckoned it would make for a fantastically bright wearable antidote to all the grey winter weather.
I very much enjoyed wearing my "new" coat for a couple of days... and then I noticed something that seriously took the shine off it.
Advertised
In everything except direct sunlight, which is kind of in scarce supply in November, my snazzy dyed coat wasn't so much canary yellow as an almost highlighter shade of yella green.
It was a definite DIY fail, but unlike a normal person who might chalk it up to experience, ship the evidence off to a charity shop, and resume the hunt for a new winter coat, I'm thinking about neutralising the "yellow" with Dylon Pre-Dye... and trying again, maybe with some oh-so-AW12 cobalt blue this time.
What is wrong with me?!
Do you have any DIY horror stories to share - or any outstanding successes to let us know about? And do you bother with clothing makeovers?
