DIY Sunset Grad Dye on a Woven Wrap Tutorial

I'm so excited about this Sunset/Rainbow Grad Dye! This is an Ellevill Zara Natural woven baby wrap, dyed using 3 colors to make this grad/ombre.  I looked at lots of pictures of Sunsets, and decided these were the colors I wanted, and am so happy with how they turned out!  Here's how I did it.

Here's what you need:

-Woven Wrap/Material, I used a woven wrap, if you are making your own woven wrap then you will need 3-6 yards of fabric (depending on how long you want it) washed and hemmed to between 26"-30" wide. Some good fabrics for making your own wrap are 100% linen, cotton/linen blend fabric, or osnaburg.  Natural fibers dye best!

-Fiber Reactive Dyes, I used Dharma dyes, other brands are Custom Colors, or you can also use Dylon or Tulip dyes, though you might need more dye to get vibrant colors

-Soda Ash or Washing Soda, both can be found at Walmart, Soda Ash in the pool section, and Washing Soda in the Laundry section. If you use Washing Soda, use 1/3 more (1 1/3 cup). I used Washing Soda.

-Salt non-iodized, about 12 cups or more, I bought a 25 lb. bag at Costco for like $4

-Hangers with clips, or clothespins, I used 10 hangers and the fabric was a single layer on each hanger

-Large Tote for dye bath, or you could probably use a big bucket, I've also used a trash can

-Gloves

-Blue Dawn

-Something to hang the wrap from, I used an old metal clothing rack that adjusted in height. I've also used a curtain tension rod (you have to be careful with tension rods that the rod doesn't fall and wreck your dye project), other people rig a pulley system

-Smaller container for mixing dyes

Prep Your Fabric:

-Wash and dry your fabric

-Scour you fabric- If you are using a woven wrap, you do not need to scour, and you can skip this step.  If you are making your own using fabric off the bolt like Osnaburg, you need to scour your fabric before dyeing it.  You do this by boiling water in a big pot, add 1 cup of soda ash and a little blue dawn and stir to dissolve. Add your fabric to the pot, and boil for 30 minutes or more.  If you are using Osnaburg, your water will probably turn a dark yellow.  When it is done scouring, rinse and dry your fabric. I didn't scour my fabric because it's a purpose woven wrap.

-Soda Ash Soak- Put enough warm water in your tote to cover your wrap, mix in 1 cup of soda ash, stir until dissolved.  Add your wrap to the water and stir/poke it to make sure that the wrap gets fully saturated.  Let soak for 30 minutes or more.  I let mine soak for a couple hours stirring every once and a while. You can save this water/soda ash to use later in your dye bath if you want.

-Wring out- When you are ready to dye your wrap, take it out of the soaking mixture and wring out the excess water, leave slightly damp.  I throw mine in the washer and do a Drain/Spin cycle.  Do not rinse it, you want the soda ash to stay in your wrap, it will help it dye better.

Setup:

-Hanging the wrap- Attach hangers to one rail of your wrap folding the wrap back and forth accordion style. With this wrap I only used one layer per hanger.  Some people attach multiple layers per hanger, but I didn't want the fabric to stick to itself and mess up my dyeing.

-Tapers- If you have tapers that hang down, you can loosely hand tack/sew them up, but make sure it's loose so the dye gets between the layers.

-Mixing your Dye Bath- I wanted to reuse my soda ash soaking water (which also saves on soda ash) so I left it in the tote and added more hot water so that the wrap would be able to move around easily in the dye bath.  Mix in your soda ash if you are using new water, or just add a little extra to the water you already have (probably optional to add more, but I wanted to just to make sure).  Add salt, I added 4 to 5 cups of Salt to my dye bath.  It should be about 1 cup per gallon of water. Stir to dissolve.  Put your powder dye in a separate container, I used about 1 Tablespoon of powder dye for each color that I did. Add warm/hot water to the powder dye and mix until dissolved.  Once it's dissolved, add it to your dye bath water mixture and stir well.  Once the dye mixes with the soda ash, it is most effective for about 45 minutes to and hour, so get dyeing. 

-Hang the wrap up over your dye tub.

Dyeing your Wrap:

1st Color- Yellow (I used Citrus Yellow)

-Slowly lower the bottom inch of your wrap into the dye bath and let it sit for a couple minutes. 

-Continue to gradually lower your wrap more and more into the dye bath until you reach the level at which you want the dye to stop.  

-I grad dyed 2/3 of my wrap yellow. My total dyeing time from when I put the bottom of my wrap in, to when I reached the level I wanted was about 45 minutes. (So I lowered it super slowly!). I also every once and a while kind of bobbed it up and down to try to help it blend smoothly and not end up with lines.

-When you have reached the level you want the dye to stop at, raise the wrap out of the dye.  I then let mine drip for a couple minutes, but I don't know that it's necessary.  Rinse with cold water until the water runs clear (or clear enough :)).  Wash on hot, and let dry.

(This picture doesn't show the grad very well, but it was there)

2nd Color- Dark Red (I used Jungle Red mixed with a little Teal Blue)

-Re-soak your wrap in a new soda ash water mixture, wring it out, and re-clip it to the hangers with non-dyed fabric at the top.

-Follow the same process as above, grad dyeing over the yellow up 1/2 of the wrap leaving a little yellow at the top. My total dyeing time was 40 minutes for this color.

-Rinse with cold water, then wash on hot and let dry.

3rd Color- Dark Blue (I used Cobalt Blue mixed with a little Teal Blue)

-Re-Soak your wrap in soda ash water, wring it out and attach the red part of the wrap to the hangers.  

-Follow the same procedure for dyeing as above, grad dye over the non-dyed part, and yellow up 1/2 of the wrap.  My total dyeing time for this color was 35 minutes.

 -Rinse with cold water until the water runs clear.

-Wash on hot with a tiny bit of Blue Dawn (blue dawn is optional, but helps get the extra dye out).  You may want to do a couple hot washes just to make sure all the extra dye is out.

-Let dry

 Admire your work, and enjoy wearing your baby in your beautiful wrap!

Tips:

-Before you start, practice using your dyes so you'll know what colors will look like when they mix on top of each other.

-Raising the fabric up and down a little in the dye can help make for a smooth grad.

 Here's another tutorial of 2 colors using Dylon and Tulip dyes and adding water to create the grad: http://peacefulcreativeliving.blogspot.com/2015/06/diy-grad-dye-woven-wrap-tutorial.html

Yeah, one more pic!

DIY Grad Dye Woven Wrap Tutorial

Craft time! Here's my first grad/ombré dye of a DIY woven wrap for babywearing.  I love love love how it came out!  It was a long process, but I feel that it paid off in the end with a pretty wrap.  

I made this wrap out of 100% linen suiting fabric that I bought at JoAnn Fabrics.  It's a nice weight and I think it will be great for summer.

Here's the process I went through for this dye job, hope you enjoy:

Here's what you need:

-Fabric (I used 100% linen, another popular choice is osnaburg, or a linen/cotton blend) the length depends on how long of a wrap you want.  I bought 4 1/4 yards of fabric.  The fabric was 53" wide, so I cut it down the middle length wise, and was able to get 2 wraps out of it. 4 1/4 yards ends up making about a size 4 wrap.

-Powdered dye- 2 packets of each color. I used Dylon, and Tulip, it needs to be fiber reactive so it will be safe for babies.

-Large pot that can hold all of the fabric (used for scouring and soaking the fabric)

-Rubber gloves to protect your hands

-Big tote for the dye tub

-Washing soda or soda ash (I used washing soda from wal-mart)

-Salt- a lot, I used about 10 pounds total, though how much you use is up to you

-1 Gallon container- a gallon jug would work, I used a gallon ice cream bucket, it made it easy for mixing everything in it.

-Blue Dawn dish soap

-Pant hangers with clips

-Tension rod

-Some big chunks of time (like 2-3 hours per color), lots of patience, and excitement! :)

Prep your fabric:

-Wash and dry your fabric (for shrinkage)

-Cut so that after hemming it will be between 25"-28" wide (or whatever width you want)

-Hemming...so you can hem it before you wash it, or before you dye it, or after you dye it.  Totally up to you.  Things to consider...if you hem it before you dye it the type of thread you use matters.  To have the thread dye, it has to be cotton thread.  Polyester thread won't dye.  If you wait to hem it until after, you could end up with some fraying.  I hemmed mine at the very end, and the linen didn't fray much at all, it was very easy to hem.  That way I was able to match my thread to my dyed fabric, and use polyester thread which is stronger.

-Scour your fabric- fill a large pot with water and 1 cup of washing soda and 1 tablespoon of Blue Dawn, bring to a boil.  Add you fabric, and boil for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. My water turned a dark yellow color (which totally made me wonder what was on that fabric, and glad I had scoured it to get the fabric clean) Rinse and wring out (I threw it in my washing machine and did a rinse and spin cycle).

-Soak- refill your pot with warm water and a cup of washing soda.  Add your fabric, and let it soak for 30 minutes. Drain the water, (I actually saved this water and used it later adding it in with my water to the dye bath, saved water and washing soda) do NOT rinse the fabric (you want the washing soda to stay in the fabric, it will help with the dyeing), wring out and leave the fabric damp.

Setup:

-Put your tote in the bathtub with the tension rod above it. The tension rod should be at the height where when the fabric is hung on it, and put into the tub, it hangs close to the bottom of the tote, but does not touch the bottom.

-Accordion fold your fabric and attach it to the hangers (you kind of have to mess with this and decide what works, but you want to spread the fabric out, so don't attach too much fabric to each hanger).

Dyeing the fabric:

-Add some warm/hot water to fill the bottom of the tote a couple inches, add 1/4 cup washing soda and 1 cup salt and mix.

-In a small container, mix dyes as directed on the packages, then add to the tote, and mix. (Try not to let it splash on the sides of the tote).

-Add a little bit of blue dawn (probably a tablespoon) to break the surface tension.

-Hang the fabric on the rod over the tote, so that the bottom of the fabric is in the dye (but not touching the bottom of the tote)

-Let the fabric sit for 5-10 minutes.

-While you wait fill up you gallon container with warm/hot water and mix in salt and washing soda (up to you how much, I used between 1/2 to 1 cup salt and 1 tablespoon washing soda for each gallon of water).

-After it has sat for 5-10 minutes, add the gallon water, salt, washing soda mixture (be careful not to let it splash on the fabric while you are adding it. I poured it down the corner wall of the tote)

-Set your timer for 5 minutes.

-Continue to add a gallon of warm water mixed with salt and washing soda every 5 minutes until you reach the middle (or the height you want to stop at).

-After adding the last water mixture, let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then take it out of the dye.

-Hang it to blanch for 30 minutes or more. (Which mean just let it hang for 30 minutes+)

-Rinse the fabric in cold water until the water runs clear.  This takes a long time, and lots of rinsing. If you will be doing another color on the other side, try not to rinse that side because you want to keep the washing soda in it.  Or just do another washing soda soak on that side before you dye it.

-Flip the fabric, and repeat the above dyeing steps on the other side of the wrap.

-When the wrap is done dyeing, and if fully rinsed, wash it on warm/hot and let it dry. (I washed it in my washing machine and dried it in my dryer.)

-Step back and checkout the amazing wrap dye you just did!!!

-Hem if you haven't done so, then take it for a spin with you little one.  

Extra Idea for left over fabric and dye:

So after I finished dyeing this wrap, I had a full tote of dye water just sitting there, so I decided to make use of it.  I took my extra fabric and did a grad dye, but in the revers order.  I submerged all of the wrap, then slowly pulled it out (moved the tension rod higher, not an easy feat) every 5-10 minutes.  I was not as dedicated to this one, so I wasn't very diligent with my time, so it's pretty chunky,but ended up with a fun grad dye anyways.

I also dyed some burp rags, and some fabric for a skirt for my daughter (might as well make good use of the dye when you have it.)

Update

Here's another tutorial for a Sunset 3 color grad dye: http://peacefulcreativeliving.blogspot.com/2015/07/diy-sunset-grad-dye-on-woven-wrap.html

DIY Woven Baby Wrap Grad Dye

Craft time! This last weekend I tried something new, and am so happy with how it turned out.  As most of you know, I'm way into baby wearing, and own a fair amount of wraps and baby carriers.  With summer coming I decided I wanted a 100% linen wrap because it should be cooler for the hot summer days.  100% linen wraps are pretty expensive, so I decided to try my hand at making and dyeing my own wrap.

I bought 100% linen suiting from JoAnns (thank you mom for the Christmas gift card), and Dylon dyes which are fiber reactive so they aren't harmful to babies (can you tell I did tons of research leading up to actually doing this project?).  I originally wanted a grad/ombre dye that went from yellow to turquoise, so I bought those colors.  Then I decided that I wanted it to be more of an orange to a darker turquoise.  So I bought a red to mix with the yellow (apparently regardless of what is taught in kindergarten, red and yellow do not make orange :)), and dark teal to go with the turquoise (again, didn't turn out how I thought that color combination would).  Obviously it didn't come out the colors I was planning, but luckily it came out these fantastic colors.  I love it!

The dyeing process took a super long time, but was worth it.  The grad came out pretty smooth.  Then I hemmed it, and it's ready to use.  I used it yesterday with each kid, and it was pretty comfortable.  It has a lot of breaking in to do, but I can tell that it will be cool, and is going to be such a great wrap for this summer!

How to Save ANY Cast Iron Pan

I destroyed a cast iron pan.  Cue the melancholy violins here.  I don't know what happened! But whatever I did I made it rust, a LOT. 

However, there is hope for these pans! My Mother and Father-in-Law showed me how to restore it.

All you do is wash out your pan with a steel wool sponge and warm water.  Dry with paper towel.  Take another paper towel and put some vegetable oil on it.  Rub this over the pan.  Preheat oven to about 200 degrees (I am actually going to try 230 degrees next time, I think it needed a bit more heat) and bake for 40-60 minutes.  The rust should be gone and the pan should be seasoned.  However, if the pan is REALLY rusted you may have to follow this process a few times. 

The wonderful thing about this is that if you are at a garage sale or a thrift shop and see a beat up cast iron pan with rust, you can save it! Some people may donate something like that (like I almost did) and give up on it when in reality it's a super simple thing to get it back to new.

I hope this helps you guys! This would be really handy to know for presents for Christmas, a bridal shower, kids going to college, etc.