Many vintage aficionados are familiar with the Juli Lynne Charlot name, she is most certainly one of the most iconic designers of the late 1940s and1950s. Most well known for her infamous "poodle skirt", she has also been an actress and a singer. Her most well known skirts are made from felt and tell a story, it may be a day at the races, a flirting dog, a skirt representing a chess game, and many other fun and playful designs. Juli Lynne Charlot is now 98, is writing her memoirs and lives in Mexico.

There is a brilliant article here that shares some updates on what Juli Lynne has been up to and her latest design.

I have the pleasure of sharing with you a restoration of a skirt from Juli Lynne Charlot. Before I go into the detail, let's look at some photos of what she looked like when I purchased her.

I came across this skirt on Instagram being sold by @bewitchingvintageclothing, the owner Bridget is an absolute delight and was thrilled to find a skirt by JLC. Bridget advised me that she had bought this item at an auction, and she gave me the details. Here is the listing photo, it was not described as being a Juli Lynn Charlot skirt so Bridget got an extremely pleasant surprise when she received her parcel.

Provenance [UPDATED 1 January 2021]

Determined to find out more about this skirt, I contacted the owner of the Auction House, who happens to also be a member of the Vintage Fashion Guild. Kerry Taylor kindly replied to me to let me know that this skirt and all of the items in the group that Bridget had purchased had come from a long time collector from New York. Unfortunately this collector could not recall where she obtained any of her items so her history beyond that time, and who and when she was tie dyed remains a mystery.

What I do know is that this skirt is very well travelled, starting with the previous owner in New York, then travelling to the auction house which is based in London, England 5,561.93 km (3,456.03 mi) away. Bridget is in Philadelphia USA 5,713.24 km (3,550.04 mi) away and I am in Sydney, Australia 15,955.27 km (9,914.15 mi) away. So in the last six months she has travelled 27,230.44 km (16,920.22 mi). That is equivalent to over two third's of the earth's circumference and some serious frequent flyer miles!

The story continued....

Bridget had not initially realised that this skirt had been modified from it's original form. These skirts are not seen often and many vintage dealers will never come across a JLC skirt even in decades of selling, so it is a unique piece indeed.

This particular JLC is a full circle skirt made of cotton, she is embellished with wool felt applique flowers seated on a stem with leaves along the stem and also scattered throughout the skirt along with small petals. The bottom of the skirt is trimmed with a double layer felt semi circle cut trim.

Sadly at some point in her past, and before Bridget found her, she had been tie-dyed. The skirt was dyed in two colours of tie dye, in dark pink and orange. This dye was all over the skirt including the appliques which were also affected by the dye.

Tie-dye became immensely popular in the mid 1960s, and I estimate that this is when her previous owner decided that this skirt deserved a tie-dye treatment. Based on my estimations I think this skirt was dyed around 55 years ago!

When she arrived to me I was feeling a plethora of emotions. I was excited to attempt a restoration, but I was also terrified. I have never attempted to restore an item either vintage or new that had been dyed. I've also never dyed or un-dyed anything in my entire life. I was also terrified of making a mess of a JLC - a piece of history!

So I laid out a plan, it went something like this:

1. Try to release the dye using gentle methods, and if that fails then
2. Use a dye remover to try and release the dye, and if that fails then
3. Cry

I had everything I needed for step 1, but as I have exactly ZERO experience at fabric dye or un-dye I had to do some research. I discovered that Rit who make a lot of fabric dyes also have a dye remover. So, I went to my local fabric store Spotlight to locate this dye remover, they were out of stock. Of course!

A few days later I had to travel to the outer suburbs of Sydney and there happens to be another Spotlight there, so of course I stopped in. Sitting there on the shelf was 3 packets of Rit dye remover. I had no idea how much dye remover I would need, and there are no instructions on the outside of the packet so I bought all three. I figured whatever I didn't need I could always return. I did not know what was to come!

The following day I decided to make my first attempt. Referring back to the plan, the first step was to use gentle methods. I prepared a tub of warm but not hot water and I poured in a capful of The Laundress Bleach Alternative. I love products by The Laundress and this one has been amazing at removing tough stains. 

Now at this point you would think that I would start taking photos of what this skirt looked like in it's current state. But no, I just jumped right in. So the only "before" photos I have are the ones from Bridget @bewitchingvintageclothing.

Whilst the Laundress Bleach Alternative is wonderful at getting out stains, it appears to be ineffective at removing dye. Which is not surprising, as that's not what it is intended for. Even after one hour in the tub, the skirt looked exactly the same as it had before. 

Onto Step two of The Plan.

As mentioned already, there are no instructions on how to use this dye remover on the outside of the packet. So I opened up the box and pulled out the sachet inside. There are no instructions on the sachet either! You need to dismantle the box as the instructions are on the inside of the box, and the font is microscopic. Most of the instructions are articulating how toxic this product is and how you should use it in a well ventilated room and don't get it in contact with your eyes or skin.

As I was reading this tiny font, I was questioning why I thought this was a good idea to use a highly toxic chemical on a precious piece of vintage history with wool appliques. However Step 3 of the plan was not an option until Step 2 was at least attempted, and I was already committed. I was all in.

The instructions advise you to use boiling water and basically "cook" the dye out of the garment. I was already nervous about these chemicals and was not going to play with boiling water on my precious skirt. So I filled a tub with warm water from the tap, roughly 80% hot water and 20% cold, I'd estimate the water temperature would have been around 45C - a long way from boiling!

I pour the "sachet of toxicity" into the water and it hits me as to why the instructions suggest using this product in a well ventilated area. This product smells extremely strong, like very heavy ammonia. Fortunately my laundry has two louvre windows so I opened the louvres and the door to let fresh air pass through. If you don't have good ventilation then I suggest you also use a gas mask. I'm not joking when I say this stuff is strong.

I used a wooden spoon to ensure the dye remover was fully dissolved in the water. Then, after a silent prayer, I immersed the JLC into the water using the spoon and swooshed it around. It was within 30 seconds that I could see the water turning pink. I started feeling euphoric but I wasn't sure whether this was from the chemicals or if I was just excited that it appeared to be working. I left the skirt in the dye remover for around 25 minutes then returned to check on it.

Again it did not even cross my mind to take photos of these steps!!! I know, what was I thinking?

Upon returning to the laundry, I was absolutely delighted to find that the previously clear water was now an almost opaque dark pink! I thought now was as good a time as any to empty the basin and take a look at the skirt and see if the dye has completely come out. After emptying the basin I rinsed her under the tap with warm water. I could see that there was still plenty of tie dye left. The dark pink had slightly faded but overall she looked the same.

I repeated the treatment using the same method, and again a lot of pink dye came out. At this point I could see that the wool appliques were negatively affected by the treatment. They were losing their colour and hardening. However I couldn't do anything else but continue, the journey had begun.

After the second treatment most of the pink dye had come out, however the orange dye was persistent and remained. I had one more little toxic sachet left, so I upped the ante and I filled the basin with hot water from the tap. My water thermostat is set at 60C so still not boiling. I emptied the sachet into the basin and my trusty wooden spoon made sure the toxic sachet contents were fully dissolved before the skirt was returned to the basin for what I thought was her final treatment.

This time I stirred the water every 10 minutes or so, and after around 20 minutes I could see the water turning orange!!! This was momentous and exciting. This meant this skirt had hope!!!

After a lot of swooshing and an hour elapsed, the water did not seem to be turning any darker orange. So I tipped up the basin and rinsed the skirt like crazy. The chemicals were so strong I did not want to have any left in the skirt. As I was rinsing I noticed three things..

1. The appliqued flowers and leaves had completely hardened and some had even fallen off. They and the trim had turned a creamy white colour.
2. The orange dye was not completely gone, it was definitely faded but not completely out.
3. The skirt was now a very pretty shade of soft pink!

The first two points were a Debbie downer but the third one had me pretty thrilled! After a thorough rinse I hung her on the line to dry and made "Another Plan" to deal with the first two points.

Another Plan 

1. Replace the appliqued leaves and flowers - this meant I had to source wool felt (see below)
2. More Rit dye remover needed to be obtained - I knew my local fabric store had none, so I went onto Amazon. I ordered five sachets - just in case!

Sourcing wool felt

Modern felt that you find in fabric stores like Joann's in the USA and Spotlight in Australia are generally 100% acrylic/viscose or at best 80% acrylic/viscose blended with wool. Modern felt has a lot of great benefits, one of the major ones is that it's very inexpensive, you can buy a metre of felt for around $5 - this is why it is often used in craft projects as it's cheap and cheerful. It also responds well to being glued, pinned and manipulated and is also often used to make modern reproductions of vintage skirts. 

However modern felt is also not authentic to the era of this JLC skirt. At the time of this skirt being made, modern acrylic/viscose felt likely didn't exist and even if it did it was not used in JLC skirts. So wool felt needed to be sourced. JLC skirts typically use felt that's 3mm depth on the skirt and 2-3mm depth on the embellishments. Try as I might I could not find wool felt of 2mm or more depth in the colours I wanted (though it is readily available in white and black - good to know this for future projects).

I found a great store that sold mostly quilting fabrics not far from my house, they also sold wool felt and is run by a local lady - the store is basically in a house. I took the skirt with me to buy the felt and when I got to the store they had a plethora of colours but were out of stock of pink !!!! I spoke to the owner and she said "follow me" and led me into the bathroom. After a moment of wondering what was I doing there, she pointed me into the direction of the pink wool felt that she had received but not yet put out on display (the bathroom was used as a store room). 

I'm not sure she fully understood what I was trying to do when I told her I wanted to make 3D wool felt flowers but she went along with it, nodded politely and smiled. She gladly gave me her opinion on a suitable colour. I only found one shade of pink that worked with the pink of the skirt, the others were too salmon or orange - and I did not repeat not want any orange on this skirt. So I purchased two sheets of the pink, two sheets of each of the greens that I liked and one sheet of off-white. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the off-white yet.

After I got home I decided that maybe I didn't buy enough pink felt. However the store was now closed for the day and for the holidays, it was not reopening until 18 January 2021.  So I logged onto Etsy and I found the Etsy store called Felt Craft Studio - I chose to order from this store for a few reasons...

1. The felt comes from Australian Merino Wool that is felted in Europe. The thought of this skirt having a permanent piece of Australia as a key feature really appealed to me. I think JLC would agree with the humour in this, it is also now part of the story of the history of this skirt.
2. The seller is in the same state as me. With the postal system in disarray due to COVID and holiday peak deliveries, ordering from out of state was risky.
3. The seller is a sole trader female business. I support that!

I didn't know what colour to order, as several of the pinks were very similar. So I ordered two different pinks thinking one of them surely has to be the one.

Meanwhile I decided to remove the flowers and leaves which by now were shrivelled and hardened. I accepted failure on the appliques but I knew that if the dye would come out then I could definitely restore this piece.

The Final Soak

The following day the delivery of the Rit dye remover arrived! I was keen to get the remaining orange dye out of the JLC skirt. I felt really confident that one more treatment would do the trick.

I repeated the same approach as the third soak, using hot water straight from the tap and my trusty wooden spoon. I stirred the water every 10 minutes and let her soak for around two hours. I could see that the water had turned a light orange, so I was pretty thrilled about that!

I emptied the basin and could not see any more orange on the skirt. However I decided to reserve getting too excited until I saw her dried. As she had been soaking in strong chemicals for 2 hours, I decided to launder her using the washing machine on the delicates cycle.

BIG DISCLAIMER HERE as I do not advocate using a washing machine on vintage clothing. This skirt is a cotton skirt and has had all of her embellishments removed (except the stems which were machine sewn on and I left to replicate later) and as she was soaking in chemicals for two hours I felt that a washing machine cycle was necessary. After her cycle completed, I ran another rinse only cycle and put on the slowest spin. Then I hung her on the line to dry.

Later that night I took a peek at her and she looked great! No orange in sight! So I took her off the line and ironed her. The next morning I took some photos to show progress of her transformation.

Needless to say, I was TOTALLY THRILLED TO BITS!!! I am not claiming that I am any kind of dye removing genius, far far from it this was beginners luck. And let's be honest it wasn't a total success because now I had all of those appliques to deal with. We will talk about them in part 2 of this blog.