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hello to karen and all others!
so ive fallen in love with my motherease OS diapers, ive tried others, and motherease dipes are the best. that being said before i even started cloth diapering i knew i wanted to have some that were tie dyed. from what i gather searching on here your the expert. i understand that you recommend the procrin dyes but i wondered if tulip dyes would work? also i know with a terry product tie dyeing would be nearly impossible, but i read were you said you had sucess with syringe dripping. i was wondering if it was possible if you would email me a few pics of them, for the life of me i just cant "see" how to do it my head. would you drip randomly or in a pattern? i love to tie dye and here in hot behind florida id like my DD to go coverless sometimes. i welcome anyone elses suggestions as well 
thanks crista (selfscorpio@hotmail.com) |
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Hi there,
Sorry I took so long to respond, I've been away at the in-laws cottage for a few days... First I have to agree that ME diapers are definetly the BEST!!
Ok, so I'll answer your questions here since maybe others might be interested in dying their diapers too... I had so much fun with it that I think if I had another baby I would probably do it myself again even despite ME's beautiful new colors.
I don't know much about Tulip dyes but the only product of theirs that I've used or know about is fabric paint. Is that what you mean or do they have actual powder/liquid dyes as well? I did try the fabric paint and it worked ok, I wouldn't put it on diapers though, especially not terry cloth ones. I'm afraid the intense washing would flake off the paint and the terry cloth would really not hold onto it well. But those are just my assumptions, I've never actually tried it. Dharma does sell fabric paints that might work better, I think they're more of a thick liquid instead of a real hard-drying type paint.
If you are referring to actual dyes then I really can't help you except to say that procion dyes really are the best so if the Tulip ones aren't procion then I wouldn't bother. Especially if you're going to take the time to drip-dye them, you want dyes that are reliable and especially that won't fade or bleed.
As for my drip-dyeing technique, it's just something I kind of made up myself before I found out there was such a thing as "drip-dyeing". For a more official technique you could always try googling it, I never bothered just because by then I was already done.
I started with the Dharma Tie-Dye instructions. Soaked my fabrics in the mixture they recomend and mixed up my dye according to their instructions. I had no idea how I would go about tying elastics on the diapers, I just couldn't seem to picture what the results would be and I was afraid to 'ruin' my diapers. So I just improvised... I used a little plastic syringe (mine were the kind that you get at the hospital to finger feed a baby - they come with a little plastic tube at the end but I just cut that off as I found it was too ackward). They were perfect for releasing just a small amount of the dye at a time.
I just let the dye dribble out slowly in the 'pattern' I wanted. The dye is too liquid to make any kind of intricate patterns. I considered thickening it up with a thickening agent (even bought it) but I never got around to trying it out. So I just stuck to really simple stuff. Like thick stripes (about 2" thick), going horizontally, vertically or on an angle through the diaper. Or sometimes I'd just make random splotches in one color and then fill in the 'gaps' with a second and sometimes third color. Sometimes I just did two-three complimentary colors half/half and let them bleed nicely into each in the middle. Like if I started with yellow at one end, then let it gradually become orange, then have the orange gradually become a deep red. Then once I was done I would wrap the diaper up in several layers of plastic wrap (I'd already layered a couple layers underneath the diaper while I applied the dye) and then put the whole thing in a ziplock bag. As per Dharma tie-dye instructions.
Some tips... First, since it's inevitable that the colors will bleed into each other at least a little, you need to chose neighbouring colors carefully. It's important that when mixed they form a nice color rather than just a brown/black color. If in doubt, try them out on a piece of fabric you don't mind throwing away. If I remember correctly, reds/yellows/oranges work well together. Blues and greens only work if seperated by yellow. The yellow will bleed nicely with both colors and prevent them from bleeding into each other (if I remember correctly blue and green right next to each other turns rather muddy).
Remember that the dye is very liquid and can be difficult to control so it's best to not try to go too small in your designs, the small areas will likely just get bleeding from the surrounding color and will either disappear completly or turn a totally different color.
One issue I sometimes ran into was that the thickness of the diaper sometimes complicates things. I would need to really soak the diaper to get the dye to cross the thickness of the diaper (especially in the soaker area, you need a lot more dye in that area than you do on the 'wings'). But then sometimes I'd use too much and when it was sitting, the dye would really shift, bleed and even drip to other areas. You could get around this by dying one side at a time but that's not always easy either just because it's difficult to properly line up the colors when you can see the other side and then if they don't line up properly and you add too much dye, it could cross over and 'mess-up' the other side. Just try not to add too much (you can try gently lifting the diaper to see how it's doing on the underside) and maybe the best advice I can give is to minimize how much you manipulate the diaper as it's processing. If it gets tossed around a lot that's when the dye can start dripping around.
Of course, all this was only an issue because I was rather anal and wanted the dying to be perfect on both sides (well, the inside was never as nice as the outside but close). If all you care about is the outside of the diaper (which certainly makes sense since that's the only part that's really seen) then you don't have to worry about any of it.
I always rinsed them individually in the sink before doing a few rinses in the washer. That way I could dye all kinds of different colors and not worry about bleeding in the washer. I did find that it was important not to let them sit on each other for a prolonged time once the rinse was done, otherwise they sometimes bled on each other.
I think that about covers it. Unfortunetly I don't have any pictures left of the diapers I died. I sold off all my diapers a while back since my girls only need them at night now (and they use bedwetter pants at night so I didn't bother dying the ones they're using now).
Good luck and have fun! If you have really specific questions you want to ask you can always email me at sylvain_karen @ hotmail.com (just remove the spaces first - I just put that there to avoid spam).
Karen. |
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thank you!
its ok you dont have pics you explained it well enough for me to have a better idea. tulip has tie dye kits, they're like dylon dyes if you know about them. your right if im going to take the time to do them i might as well get the good stuff. ive tie dyed alot before, like you though i just couldnt figure out how to do it without tying them. thank you karen youve been very helpful. wish me luck!
crista |
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| hey karen. if i remember correctly, those PF's that you gave me were hand died? if they look tie died, perhaps i can get dh to take pics of them and send them to her. |
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Sorry, nope they were solid color dyed... Thanks anyway though, very thoughtful.
Karen. |
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