One fateful morning, whilst doing a “quick tidy up,” my poor dressing gown belt got eaten by the vacuum cleaner. 😢 But I wasn’t about to let a household mishap ruin my morning routine and my favourite pretty little gown.
I remembered that buried at the back of a drawer, I had an old linen belt that I’d kept ‘just in case’. It was perfect for this creative rescue mission. I decided to give it new life with my favourite alchemical process: batik.
Using my trusty wax pot, tjanting tool and dyes, I followed a simple but transformative three-stage batik process of waxing & dyeing:
Step 1: Waxing & Preserving Light Base Colours
Always start light! I began by preserving a few areas of the original white fabric with wax, then dyed small sections of the belt in pale shades of yellow and green to create a soft foundation.
Step 2: Preserving Yellow & Green + Adding Mid Strength Dyes (Amber & Dark Green)
With more hot wax, I sealed in the pale colours and added mid strength dyes—amber and dark green—to build depth and add dimension.
Step 3: Preserving Amber & Green + Adding Strong Dark Colour (Brown)
At this point, fully waxing the stems and leaves now made them complete. I added brown dye to the flowers to give them further shading and definition.
Final Step: Waxing the Brown + Overdyeing in Black
Lastly, I added more wax accents to preserve the brown and the overall body of the flowers and painted the whole belt in black to really make the design pop – and crucially, it now matched my gown!
If you’re curious, I filmed a quick timelapse of the process and popped it up on YouTube. You can watch it here:
I’m so glad I didn’t throw that old belt away. Up-cycling isn’t just about sustainability—it’s also a fabulous excuse to experiment, play, and make something uniquely yours, like with this one-of-a-kind batik belt.
It feels special to personalise something and enjoy putting your unique stamp on it. And if it wasn’t for my little vacuum cleaner incident, my gown would be just another chain store item.like the thousands of others it was mass-produced with.
So next time something gets chewed up by a household appliance, don’t mourn it too long. It might just be asking to be reborn as a batik beauty—or something equally inventive that reflects your unique spark and talents!
Stay creative, friends!