So, Lil’ A wanted flannel sheets. Just like Mommy has. She loves coming in to snuggle (Ok, I am sure it isn’t just because of the sheets, but for this post’s sake, let’s say it is. She is a pro at finding reasons not to go to sleep.) usually at night, but recently in the morning. She always says that my sheets are “soooo cuddly” She tried to get Lil’ E to enjoy them to, but she hasn’t quite gotten the snuggle thing down yet. (Although she was a snuggle bug as a baby!)
Off we went to the store. Wal-mart didn’t have any sheets in flannel that looked like they would survive one wash. Being that I made so many flannel receiving blankets, I have worked with a lot of different weights of flannel. And seen how they wash. The thin stuff won’t stay together for more than a winter. It isn’t even worth the savings! Spend your money on the good flannel. I had the same flannel sheets from the time I was 12-21. I am pretty sure they are still around too!
All the next store had was white, blue, brown and burgundy! Really? Whatever happened to some color? I thought of running around look elsewhere, but then I remembered I had a gift card to this particular store. I then had an idea. Why don’t I dye them? How hard could that be? Being the DIY Proverbs 31 mom that I am…who also likes saving money…which I was about to do because of my gift card, I thought the worse that could happen is that they turn out really tie-dyed.
So we bought the sheets. Lil’ A thought my idea was genius. I just didn’t tell the Mister yet.
Once in the van, I got out some snacks to entertain the kiddos while I looked up Rit Dye on my phone. I already know that there is no where in my small town that carries Rite Dye. Nope, Wal-mart in my town doesn’t carry it anymore. Silly, I know. And grocery stores don’t seem to carry it anymore either! So I knew that my best bet was the local craft store in the city-which was where we were. There’s nothing worse than driving all the way back to our small town and realizing I forgot to get something in the city to finish a project!
Here’s the chart I showed Lil’ A. Rit Dye’s website is great to find the colors you want. I have used this a few times in dyeing…well almost dyeing fabric before. I just didn’t have enough patience to go through the process of getting all the color mice properly.
We picked Pink #139. I decided on this colour after Lil’ A wanted 561…but our craft store was out of one of the colors we needed to make it. I really do want to find a store in my area with all the colors Rit Dye makes.
I also picked the liquid for the same reason-it was all they had. I did have a Violet powder at home, but didn’t remember until after I bought this one. I also couldn’t find any information on mixing liquid and powder together. I figured that I have two girls, one on the way, and we all seem to love pink so far. I am sure these bottles will be well used!
I washed and dried the sheets and pillow cases once before we started with the colors.
Rit dye provides the instructions & Tips for both front loads & top loads. I have done this in the top load way back when. Whatever I did was small, and it turned out great.
I mixed the recommended amount of dye for the weight of the fabric. But I did one thing wrong. I mixed what was listed above for the color-not the recommendation I had found on another blog with the front load of mixing 4 cups of the dye. I added 4 cups of water after the 1 cup mix of dye.
Here’s what it looked like in the washing machine. I did pause the machine and let it sit in the dye. It’s hard to tell how much water really is sitting in there.
As you can tell, it looks pretty “tie dye ish”. And I really think the main problem was that I should have filled up my laundry sink and dyed each piece and then put it in the washing machine to complete the process after it had soaked 30 minutes.
All in all the color did even out a bit. Here are the sheets on Lil’ A’s bed.
I did both sets together. Not a good thing!
In summary, here’s what worked:
1. The color was perfect. I actually liked working with the liquid. Much neater clean up.
2. The washing machine did a good job at distributing the dye. I just needed more color to make it even.
What didn’t work:
1. My formula. I should have looked closer at the color tips. Multiplying the Pink #139 formula for 1 cup by 3 or maybe even 4 would have gotten me a more even color.
2. I should have done both sets separate. There was fabric bunched up under fabric, therefore some pieces weren’t able to get a good amount of dye on them. (As evident in the photos on Lil’ A’s bed)
The best part of this situation is that I can do it again. Once I need to wash them again, I will give them a dye bath first and try and even out the color.
All in all, I think Rit Dye is a great solution to the need for pink flannel sheets! And rest assured, I am better prepared for when the need for anything pink is needed in my house of princesses!
Let me know if you have any dyeing tips or if you have attempted it before-leave a comment!
