How To: Dye Prefold Diapers {an update}
Remember those dyed prefolds?
They sure were pretty! ...and now several of our other diapers have a delightful blue tint. I'm not worried about it, but I'm pretty darned thankful that I didn't wind up tinting everything... say... pink.
So the Rit Dye is out.
What to do??
Try again--with Dylon Dyes. They're a higher quality dye, and several friends suggested that I wouldn't have the bleeding/running issue if I used something better than grocery store Rit.
The process was similar: I filled my stainless steel sink with warm water, dissolved the dye according to the package directions, added some salt to the sink water, and then plunged in a couple of wet prefold diapers. After I had achieved the color I hoped for {it only took a few minutes--NOT the hour-long dye bath recommended on their packaging}, I rinsed the diapers thoroughly under cold, running water, then moved like colors to the washing machine to rinse. Finally, I washed the diapers in a warm wash cycle with my usual detergent.
I noticed right away that the "extra" dye rinsed away much more quickly, and I'm hopeful that this will be a more permanent dye. Regardless, these diapers will be washed separately a few times to be sure!!
Shared on... Tuesday Time Out, Teach Me Tuesday
11 comments:
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Where did you find the Dylon Dyes? It looks like they're a UK company.
ReplyDeleteDylon is sold at Joann, and, I believe, some Wal*Mart stores. It's also available on amazon.com, and joann.com :)
ReplyDeleteWould this work the same for Flats, I was thinking of sprucing mine up a bit?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! You can dye any natural fiber diapers... fitteds would be great too! or natural-fiber inserts, etc..
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely going to have to try this!
ReplyDeleteHooray! I'm not sure if you've read both posts, but my first batch, dyed with Rit Dye was a big mess! Stick with the nicer Dylon, and use caution the first few times you wash everything. I wasn't careful with the Rit-dyed batch, and wound up with some blue tinted stuff!
ReplyDeleteHow many prefolds did you do per pack of Dylon?
ReplyDeleteKaitlin--you could easily dye three, probably four pre-soaked prefolds with a single package of dye. Perhaps a couple more, though the dye would be a bit lighter in color for the second "batch" of cloth. If you want to dye a larger quantity, you'd probably be best to grab more than one package of each color and dye in batches. Those diapers really soak of a lot of the color!
ReplyDeleteI want to do this to go with my kool-aid dyed wool covers.
ReplyDeleteHow cool!! I definitely want to try this! I'm assuming wash in hot water, as usual??
ReplyDeleteWhen you dye them, follow the package instructions for rinsing, etc., then, yes! business as usual. These go in with my regular diaper laundry, following my wash routine. {http://www.dandelionsonthewall.com/2012/04/how-to-care-for-your-cloth-diapers.html}
ReplyDelete