My friend, Tammi, gave me a number of cute baby outfits before O was born AND a plain white onesie. She said it was for me to decorate…What a cool idea! Well, this weekend I finally got to it (though it’s still too big for Baby O to model). I googled some ideas and came across this lady’s tutorial. I see that she shares my excitement about gussying up our baby girls’ outfits! I really like her petal-collared onesie. Mine is, well, not quite as cool, but it’s my first attempt and I love it for that reason alone! It was also a really fun (and funny) experience trying to dye the white onesie! I used Rit “Teal” powdered dye and grabbed one of my husband’s plain white undershirts. I tossed the two items in the dye bath and…viola! It was all quite straightforward, however I see that I made a “rookie mistake” by not stirring enough during the dying process, so part of the onesie didn’t dye uniformly (unfortunately the spot is FRONT & CENTER) and resembles tie-dye! Haha…oh well. I proceeded to follow the RIT directions and threw the items in the washing machine and went on with my day. A while later I returned to the kitchen to find suds spilling out of the machine and pooring onto the kitchen floor. My second thought (first was, “Ack!!!!”) was too bad O isn’t old enough to appreciate how fun it would be to play in all of these bubbles. Seriously, there were more bubbles than you’ve ever seen! I had to poor salt on them to get them to go down enough so that I could clean up the mess. Anyway, I’m still baffled by what caused this. Once washed and dried, I cut the heart-shaped petals out of the undershirt and sewed them on to the onesie…Very fun (and quick!). Next time I may make smaller petals and space them out a bit more. It will be fun to play with the idea a few times. I’m thinking about Lemon Yellow next!…
Have a GREAT Monday!
I think your main mistake was not to get the garments wet first. Soak them in water to make sure they are wet through out, don’t wring them and then put them in the dye bath. Make sure you stir them well. If you want a deeper color, make sure the dye is really hot, you can put your pot on the stove and bring it to almost a boil. You might want to soak the lot in saltwater after, too, to set the color.
Silly me. Your onsie turned out fabulous! I love it. I do a lot of dying so thought I might give you a couple of pointers. I look forward to your handmade Mondays.
Oh no that is really good feedback, Thank You!! I think you solved my problem too – I thought I must not have stirred enough (though I did stir the whole time, I just didn't stir very actively). But you're right…I didn't really soak the garmets through and through before hand. I sort of ran them through water quickly, but not uniformly through and through…That must have helped cause the "tie-dye" look! Thanks to your comment, I feel the urge to try it out again.
This is sooo cute Jane!! I’m going to try doing this for my little lamb!
Oh yay! Hey, we can make little lamb hats for our girls (for Easter) and then you can make a matching dyed/ruffled onesie to go with it!
Love this! This is an exact color that Tammi carefully mixed at my house so there must be some connection. Love all your crafts, your hats for O are super. I imagine the kids at such ease with you, since, even though I hate having my photo taken, with you it was fun and easy to pose!
Oh, did you two do some dying as well? So fun!
[...] it myself (Okay, I’m a little intimidated!), but honestly you can do very simple tricks to get a different ruffle look. This technique could be done to decorate one of your shirts! Momma’s gotta have fun too, [...]