Spark, tell me about your dye work

[huskermommy]

I can't remember where you posted it but I loved the prefolds you dyed and the clothes too. I'm a tie-dye virgin so I know nothing about the process.

Could you explain what you do/use/etc for those of us who are new to this? I am desperately looking for something to "do" to keep my mind off the fact that I'm still pg! (Which would totally not bother me if I wasn't contracting and uncomfy!!

TIA!!

[Spark]

Oh, Tabitha, I just read/responding to your other thread. Yeah, I TOTALLY think a good project would entertain you!

Okay, so dying the way I do it is just really really simple. I don't like banding and such, I just do more freestyle. I could get all fancy, but then I want everything to be perfectly tie dye & I just can't do it!

This is what you need:
Dye - I prefer Dylon dyes because they're bold, last long & don't require boiling. http://www.dylon.co.uk/ You can find them at JoAnn's or Michael's. They run about $2. (Rit isn't as good IMO but is about $1.50) I chose Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet.
Prewashed white or light colored 100% cotton items - this can be diapers, stained clothes, new clothes, etc.
Glass or stainable plastic containers - these are for items you wish to do low water immersion techniques where the dye is stronger in some areas & lighter in others. If you only want solid colors with no variation, then you don't need these.
Bonus, but not necessary Buckets/containers for each color

So, what I did was I just followed the directions on the Dylon packets and then added enough water to cover the items in my stainless steel sink. Then, I sifted off some of that dye water & poured them carefully in the low water immersion items in my glass containers.

For low water immersion, you loosely scrunch up the fabric & place it in a container that keeps it somewhat scrunched. Then, gently drizzle dye (you can use more than one color) around so that eventually most of the fabric is colored (or keep some parts white if you like).

You could also "dip dye" into the dye bath if you wanted to. Which is pretty easy - you just throw all the garment into a color (lighter or the same as the one you'll dip into). Then, when the dye is set, you dip the bottom half of the item into a darker or same color.

After dying, rinse the dye out as best as you can. Then, you wash in the washing machine. The Dylon calls for special detergent, but I just used dish soap & it worked fine for me.

This is what my dying resulted in:
One Dozen Vibrant Rainbow Infant PreFolds Having to do this again, I would have diluted the dye a bit more to stretch it further, but really I love how bright these turned out!

Mottled Premium Prefolds I achieved this look by throwing these thirsty bad boys on top of the infants in the dye bath. They kept some white spots/some lighter spots. The blue actually looks like a sky. Very cool!

Pastel Infant Prefolds (butter yellow not pictured) After I pulled the vibrant PFs out, I threw in some others into the water & the result was a much paler version.

Formerly stained baby clothes made anew! These were all done with low immersion dying described above. These were all done with solid color, but see the color variations?

Low immersion dye with 2 colors My oldest daughter wanted this to be lavender & pink. I just used the violet watered down & the red watered down to achieve this. (the next day she wore her outfit & promptly fell into a mud hole getting very very dirty!

[huskermommy]

WOW! Thank you so much! You did a beautiful job! I just LOVE the bold colors! I'm going to see if the local fabric store has some Dylon tomorrow. If not, I'll have to order some!

I do have a question though. Can do this on my indian prefolds as well? They're pretty used so there's no residue on them, but just thought I'd ask before I started a task that ended poorly!

Also, w/the low water immersion, does the dye "spread" over the fabric? Just wondering if I should take this into consideration when trying to determine how much dye to use.

And dish soap, is dawn ok? I guess that was more than a few uh?

Thanks so much for posting this and replying to my thread. I really appreciate it! Your dd did get VERY messy !

[xixstar]

glad to hear the dylon works well - I ordered a bunch of acid dyes for some playsilks that I dyed a couple months ago and was wondering if I should order some fiber reactive ones too. Perhaps I'll just try the store-available stuff instead.

[Spark]

Originally Posted by huskermommy

WOW! Thank you so much! You did a beautiful job! I just LOVE the bold colors! I'm going to see if the local fabric store has some Dylon tomorrow. If not, I'll have to order some!

Thanks! I bet they will. If not, Rit isn't evil or anything. I'd do Rit over ordering, but if given the choice, I'd choose Dylon.

Can do this on my indian prefolds as well?
Oh, yeah. Definitely. Not a problem at all.

Also, w/the low water immersion, does the dye "spread" over the fabric?
It doesn't spread that much. So, if you see that something is white, it's going to stay white. With the mottled Premium PFs, they were sticking out of the dye bath very very slightly. Thus accounting for the lighter spots. With the low water immersion, you'll see what's not getting covered (check the bottom of the container for sure!). For the onesies & shirts, I made sure I just dumped enough dye to cover everything for the most part.

And dish soap, is dawn ok?
Yeah, I think so. I just used regular old dish soap. It worked fine for me. I'm sure Dawn will work well for you.

I guess that was more than a few uh?
Yes! But, ask away! I've done this more than a few times, but still I'm no expert. I'll share with you what I know & what I've done happily though!

[Spark]

Originally Posted by xixstar

glad to hear the dylon works well - I ordered a bunch of acid dyes for some playsilks that I dyed a couple months ago and was wondering if I should order some fiber reactive ones too. Perhaps I'll just try the store-available stuff instead.

Ahhh, now playsilks, I usually just do food coloring. Esp if the silks are going to lil kids. Then, I know they're pretty much food grade if they get chewed on or become loveys. Do you know how to do food coloring on silk? It's TOTALLY easy!

http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/play-silks.html (mentions using Kool-Aid, but really I just prefer the ability to mix my own colors with food coloring.)

Works for wool, too if you're into that.

[catnap70]

Ooooooh. Aaaaaaah.

I wish I was feeling up for a trip out to Jo-Anns in the heat. We definitely have some stained clothes that could use to be revamped! And this sounds so much easier than what I have done before! Thanks for the tutorial!

[firespiritmelody]

Oh Claire, Those are LOVELY! So beautiful!!

[xixstar]

Originally Posted by Spark

Ahhh, now playsilks, I usually just do food coloring. Esp if the silks are going to lil kids. Then, I know they're pretty much food grade if they get chewed on or become loveys. Do you know how to do food coloring on silk? It's TOTALLY easy!

yep, I'd considered that, or just using cake dyes since I had those on hand. But I'm also not at all patient for testing things out and it not working exactly as I wanted - so I went with ordering the dyes... especially since I was ordering all the blanks anyways. I love collecting craft supplies and was tempted to order the fiber reactive stuff too, but I'm sure my bank account appreciates that I didn't. Especially when they didn't sell anywhere near as well as I expected them to.

Also, for others who might not know, dyes that are considered "acid dyes" don't contain acids, they just use an acid (vinegar usually) to set the dyes. Lots of people have thought that these dyes were something very toxic because of their name and they're considered non-toxic when used correctly -- though food coloring is clearly even less toxic and a cheaper choice too.

[huskermommy]

Thank you Claire!! While I was up peeing for the 11th time last night I thought of another question! Do I squeeze the water out after I'm done? Even with the low immersion?

[Spark]

Originally Posted by huskermommy

Do I squeeze the water out after I'm done? Even with the low immersion?

You have to rinse out the color once the dye is all set in the garment. And, part of rinsing is squeezing out the water till it runs clear... or almost clear.

xixstar - I am SO excited to see your silks! I hope you post pictures!!!

[kamesennin]

Dude your prefolds are awesome! I went out and got some dylon today, praying the baby would stay asleep while I ran into JoAnn's (my mom waited in the car). She stayed asleep until we got home, thank goodness.

I was wondering, how many infant prefolds can I dye per packet? I want the dye to be super bright, like your first picture.

Also, when you run the washer after dyeing, did you put all the colors in together (like is it ok to wash the yellow with red), or did you sort the load by color?

I just need to get some buckets and then I am sooo doing this! I wash my diapers by hand every other day and they are hopelessly dingy (no place to line dry under the sun), and there are a ton of stained baby clothes from dd1 that I want to dye.

[~Megan~]

I've done this too and its loads of fun.

I pulled out some undershirts from storage that had stains on them (no idea how they got there!) so I got a tie dye kit from Michael's and the kids and I then dyed them up in the bath tub. It covered the stains and they had fun!

[so_blessed]

Thanks for the inspiration, Spark! It's so great to know that I don't have to get rid of my stained onesies anymore.

[Spark]

Ooh, sorry I didn't see these questions/comments till right now! Thanks for liking my dyed goods! It really was so nice to do!

Originally Posted by pbandj

I was wondering, how many infant prefolds can I dye per packet? I want the dye to be super bright, like your first picture.

If you want them that bold & bright, probably 3 infant PFs is what you'll get out of each packet... maybe 4. For each packet of Dylon I did 2 infants, 1 mottled premium, then stole some dye water for low water immersion AND did the pastels with what was left over in the sink. For pure solid dying, I think, you'll want to make sure the PFs can lay as flat as possible in the dye. I used my stainless steal sink for that & they fit perfectly.

Originally Posted by pbandj

Also, when you run the washer after dyeing, did you put all the colors in together (like is it ok to wash the yellow with red), or did you sort the load by color?

I just washed them all together with no problems. The challenge is keeping the colors all from touching before plopping them into the machine. If you have separate trash bags for each color of PF, then I think it'll be pretty easy.

Originally Posted by pbandj

I just need to get some buckets and then I am sooo doing this! I wash my diapers by hand every other day and they are hopelessly dingy (no place to line dry under the sun), and there are a ton of stained baby clothes from dd1 that I want to dye.

Oh, goodness, this is SO for you then!!! I'm totally impressed you're doing this with a newborn! But, I think you'll be SO happy with the results!

Originally Posted by so_blessed

Thanks for the inspiration, Spark! It's so great to know that I don't have to get rid of my stained onesies anymore.

Yeah, baby! That was one of my inspirations!!!

Originally Posted by ~Megan~

I pulled out some undershirts from storage that had stains on them (no idea how they got there!) so I got a tie dye kit from Michael's and the kids and I then dyed them up in the bath tub. It covered the stains and they had fun!

Oh! That's AWESOME!!! What a great idea!!!

[huskermommy]

Thanks Spark! This has been so helpful! I'm so excited for all of us to get our dye work done! As soon as I get my stuff together I'll take some pics when I'm finished and post them! I think I'm going to start w/the onesies first.

Oh, hey, here's a question! If I want bold onesies, like the pf's, how many do you think I could put in there? Quite a few since there's not nearly as many layers?

[huskermommy]

Grrrrr!! I can't believe it! No one in town has Dylon!!!! How great is that?! Now I have to settle for Rit. I've used it before on other things and it didn't turn out the greatest. I hope I have better luck this time!

[kamesennin]

Awww, sucky. Doesn't RIT bleed forever and ever? My JoAnns didn't have the bright blue, oh well.

[Spark]

Originally Posted by huskermommy

Oh, hey, here's a question! If I want bold onesies, like the pf's, how many do you think I could put in there? Quite a few since there's not nearly as many layers?

Oh, you can do SO many onesies. Prefolds are THIRSTY devils for sure! They suck up SO much dye!

Originally Posted by huskermommy

Now I have to settle for Rit. I've used it before on other things and it didn't turn out the greatest. I hope I have better luck this time!

I hope so, too! I hear the boiling method seems to be the best for bolder stronger color.

Originally Posted by pbandj

Awww, sucky. Doesn't RIT bleed forever and ever? My JoAnns didn't have the bright blue, oh well.

I think as long as you do the boil method and then wash on hot a bit, it should be fine.

[huskermommy]

Well, hopefully if I use the boil method it will be fine. I'm going to give it a go tonight!

pbandj- I, too am very impressed with you being able to do so much w/a newborn. I'm pretty worthless aferwards. I wanna see pics when you're done!