This is More Like It...

Okay. So a couple weeks ago, I posted the results of my day spent dying diapers and other mostly-baby-related stuff. The word "lackluster" comes to mind. Although I had a great time with everyone at our little "Dyeing Extravaganza," I was rather disappointed in the way everything turned out.

And so I started over.

With my chemist-husband by my side, I went back and re-dyed nearly *everything,* this time following the dyeing instructions to a "T." We generally did only one color at a time--usually late at night, after the kids were in bed (or we'd start it, and I'd sit and stir while he put the kids to bed). It was laborious and tedious and time-consuming...but I couldn't be much happier with the results.

Here's what we did, more or less:

1. First I organized all the diapers/clothes into piles of what I wanted dyed what color. At this time, I also tied-up any garments that I intended to tie-dye.

2. Starting in no particular order, I weighed the clothes for a given color (on an infant scale, which made it extra fun, because my scale weighs in grams, and my dye recipe was for a pound of dry fabric. The scale also had to be re-calibrated nearly daily--which is to say, between every color--because my children found it an irresistible plaything when I left it set-up on the dining room table). So I weighed the clothes, making adjustments in order to get as close to an even pound-or-half-pound mark as possible, and occasionally having to prioritize which items would make it into a particular color, as I was running low on dye (remember--this was my *second* attempt with this particular order of dyes).

3. Using the following formula, I mixed my dye in a large tub (I used the same Rubbermaid-type storage tubs that I use to store all my kids' outgrown clothes):

For every pound of dry fabric, mix:
3 Gallons Warm (~105*) Water (some colors called for hotter (130*) water in order to achieve accurate color results)
3 Cups Non-Iodized Salt
1 Tablespoon Fiber-Reactive Procion Dye
(For the record, the colors I used were: Truffle Brown, Hot Pink, Chinese Red, Deep Orange, Bright Yellow, Bright Green, Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Grape, and Imperial Purple.)

(I mixed the warm water and salt until the salt had dissolved. In a separate container, I mixed the dye with enough hot water to create a "slurry." Once the salt was dissolved, I added the dye and mixed it until it appeared even.)

4. I submerged my diapers/clothes in the dye, on item at a time, until everything was in. I stirred constantly or nearly-constantly for the next 20 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, Joel mixed (or, if Joel wasn't here to help, I did this in advance) 1/3 cup Sodium Carbonate (we used Arm + Hammer Washing Soda) per pound of dry clothes with hot water (again, the amount of water wasn't extremely important--just enough to dissolved the sodium carbonate completely).

6. After 20 minutes, I held (wearing gloves, of course) all my fabric to one side of the dyeing bin, and Joel added roughly 1/3 of the sodium carbonate solution to the dye (keeping it away from the clothes and mixing as he poured). Once it was added, I mixed the fabric back into the rest of the tub. We did this again at 25 minutes, and finally at 30 minutes.

7. After the finally installation of fixer (~30 minutes after having initially added the clothes to the dye), I continued stirring as constantly as I could stand for another 30-60 minutes (depending, primarily, on the shade of the dye--darker colors require a bit more time and lighter colors, less).

8. After that additional 30-60 minutes, I wrung the fabric out, piece-by-piece, and transfered it to another (dry and empty) tub. At this time, I removed rubber bands from the items I was tie-dying.

9. When everything was wrung out and untied, I put it in the washer for a short cold water cycle (to rinse off the salt and other chemicals) and then, using a little bit of special detergent, washed it on the longest, hottest cycle my washer had to offer. Most of the time, this was sufficient for removing all the extra dye (which I verified by watching during the rinse cycle to see if the water ran clear). If it didn't, I ran it a second time.

10. Once the water was running clear out of the washer, I dried the clothes (I used my dryer, because (a) I was growing very impatient for this process to be over, (b) it was usually between 12 and 2 a.m. by the time I was doing this and (c) the weather has been rather cold and damp lately, but line-drying would work just as well).

I have yet to learn how to re-size my photographs so that Blogger will let me add more than five to a given post (I'm pretty sure that's the problem, anyway), so this will just be a sampling--a smattering, if you will--of my dye results. But here's what we have:

In addition to the large stack of prefolds (24 each of newborn, infant, and standard size), I dyed some newborn-sized fitteds that I picked up used. I also dyed and tie-dyed a few covers--one came free with the Kissaluvs fitteds, and the other two were leftovers from Lucie's diapered days:



I dyed roughly a billion old onesies--most of which were originally Sam's, handed down to his cousin Luca, who returned them in time for Lucie to wear them, before they went back to Luca's house for his little sister Annika to enjoy. My sister lives in the country, and her water turns everything a sort of dingy grey color (this is what she tells me, anyway, though I suspect foul play). To put it lightly, these onesies were disgusting. Putting them on an innocent little baby would be entirely unconscionable. But a little (lot) of dye took care of that, and they're looking good-as-new.

In addition to many, many solid-colored onesies in every color under the sun (too boring to photograph, but you can imagine), I dyed several of these in two tones by simply hanging them over the edge of the dye bin and allowing only half of them to reach the dye:



I tie-dyed several others; these are a few of my favorites (the one in the middle is my very, very favorite, I think:



And I also bought a few blank garments from Dharma Trading Company, just for dying. Many of these are not pictured (not because they aren't nice, but because that would make for six photographs in one post, now, wouldn't it?). Here are a few that I liked. The green and yellow shirts on the right of this photo are actually the little t-shirts we took from the hospital when we had Lucie; I bought the pink and green shirts on the left.



Perhaps when I have a chance, I'll post some pictures of the also-very-cool stuff I dyed for Sam and Lucie (who were not about to be left out of this process)--several shirts, dresses, a couple pair of PJ pants, and even a fitted sheet for Lucie. But not today.