It took me two years to actually crack open those bottles of brown-colored dye. Better late than never I guess. Starting out with a basic test, I had to first confirm the possibility of dyeing a realistic flesh color. Using several small squares of mesh fabric, I mixed in each dye color in increasing amounts. This was just to see the color outputs of each individual color and figure out the best dye method.
After the testing, I noticed that the Sandstone color produced some really nice fair skin tones and bronze skin tones. The brown dye produced some rich dark color but wasn't giving me natural skin tone vibes. So, I mixed them together and got colors on the darker side but much more realistic. Then I realized that I should have written down the amounts of dye. SHOOT! (I actually said the other "S" word).
Back to the drawing board, I go! This time with a more solid plan. I knew I needed consistent variables to reproduce colors in the future. So, measuring the amount of dye was important, and recording the amount of dye was even more important. I would later find out that water temp was also important. Ya'll.... I was even timing the dye time as the color developed in the dye bath. FYI....THAT. IS. NOT. A. SUSTAINABLE. METHOD. Too many other factors for that method to work perfectly each time. I found that out the hard way. So, don't do that. You're welcome.
At the end of this somewhat successful test, I settled on 15 colors that I thought (at the time) were a good range of skin color possibilities. I mean.....it was more than what was available on the market at the time so it was a win. In the back of my mind, I knew that more were possible. I just didn't know exactly how many though. Fascinated by the new finding, I went on to dye larger squares and included spandex in the mix just to see what would happen. It is here that I learned that the two fabrics did not dye the same, Since I put the two pieces in together, the mesh was fair lighter with the dye bath shared. The spandex however always ended up a slightly different shade than the mesh. But in this test run, I begin to understand a bit more of how each color behaved. Not to mention learning that fabrics do not always dye the same. I created about 30+ shades this time and picked 25 to move forward with.
And then.....A bad thing happened.