I started to embroider my rips and stains like beauty marks.

I needed to fall in love with my rips and stains.

I needed to fall in love with my clothes.

I stumbled on the idea of falling in love with your rips and stains from a book on visible mending. From stitching my jean jacket to splattering paint over my pizza snafu on my jumpsuit, I wanted to fall in love with the clothes I already owned. I wanted to fix the problems that prevented me from wearing what was in my wardrobe.

And here’s the thing, I really thought I could nail tie-dye without reading the instructions. I was devastated after everyone went home and rinsed it out the next morning only to have all the color washout along with it. I went back to get to the bottom of this tie-dye business and felt determined to find a faster and more color-safe method for tie-dye.

I started with professional powdered dye, microwaved my shirt, used 100% cotton, and got brilliant results.