Adventures in Fabric Dying

Remember when I said I was doing a little fabric dying on some baby blankets? Well, I finally got around to finishing them all, and here are the results...

Plain white cotton gauze blankets...

get the Rainbow Bright treatment!

I also threw a little plain onesie into each of the dye baths, too.

I can't really say that I experimented too much with the dying, as I mainly just followed the same basic procedure for each. The yellow, orange, and pink were all dyed using one box each of powdered Rit dyes, the coral color was from a packet of Dylon dye that has been sitting in my closet for probably 4 years. For these colors, I just dissolved the dye along with some salt in a small Rubbermaid tub, added water and then the wet blankets and onesies. I left them in the dye for anywhere from 6-24 hours and occasionally stirred and redistributed the fabric in the tubs.

For the dark purple I was really going for more of a plum, and I was worried that only using one pack of dye would be too light, so I used two packs of iDye that were on clearance at JoAnn's. This type of dye comes in a packet that you are supposed to throw in the washing machine along with your fabrics and let the machine do the work. However, it also said that for dark colors you should dye in a large pot on the stove, so that is what I did. I only left this one soaking for about 2 hours, but it was nearly black when I took it out to rinse it. And rinse, and rinse...After much rinsing in the sink and 3 trips through the washer, it lightened up to this dark purple color. Perhaps one box of dye would have been sufficent.

So there you have it, 5 brightly colored receiving blankets and onesies for Baby Girl. Which pretty much makes up half her wardrobe so far. I think I have a bit of shopping to do in the next 6 weeks...