Frugal Fun: Recycling baby clothes with Tie-Dye

Click on the thumbnails to see the larger pictures.

My first experiments with dyeing. The solids are actually vat-dyed in a 5-gallon bucket. The crumple-dyes were done in Gladware containers, following the method described in Color By Accident by Ann Johnston. The clothes were all purchased as white 'blanks' from the Dharma Trading company, along with the dyes. The 3 dresses are a gorgeous cotton velour with a luscious velvetty hand.

On the left, a traditional under-arm spiral, twisted when fabric was spun-damp (see the crispness of the pleats). Colors used: turquoise and fuschia. On the right, a crumple-dye done in Gladware. The interesting thing for me in the crumple-dye above is that it's an overdye: the original shirt was a pastel pink. I'll be experimenting more with overdyeing in the future, as it's far easier to find baby clothes in pastels than it is to find them in white.

Unfortunately, I don't think I used enough Soda Ash (fixative) on the long-sleeved shirt above (here modeled by Gwendolyn) - you can see how much of the dye washed out. I was too impatient to let it sit - this one sat about an hour is all, I think. I'm letting them sit 18 hours at least, now, on top of a high bookshelf directly under a furnace vent. They sit in Gladware containers, which I think are just one of the most wonderful inventions ever. The heat helps the dye react with the fabric.

The rainbow zig-zag above left was my favorite. I got SO many comments from people on it, too. It's a pity, it's a size 0-3 months, and the G-baby has now outgrown it. I gave it to a mom at Emmaline's dance class whose had a baby recently. (Nov 13, '03)

I've been working with (mostly) two items a day, experimenting with different colors and techniques.  The two above, and 3 of the 4 below are experiments in  pleating diagonally. The one exception is the 'loveable' one, which was folded in half and then twisted as for a traditional spiral, right under the arm.  It had not been spun out in the washer after the soda ash soak, so it was entirely saturated with soda ash solution.  The outside looked entirely dyed, but you can see that the dye did not migrate through the fabric very well.

The thicker the fabric, the harder it is to do the zig-zag design.  It's hard to get tight pleats with a thick stretchy cotton terry sleeper! See how different these two are - the one shirt is a simple thin Gymboree cotton knit, and the creeper is thick terry. Incidentally, the dark purple-and-turquoise creeper *had* been white with horizontal pastel blue stripes, which are now effectively covered. I'm happy with that. I wouldn't have minded some hint of the stripes remaining, but having them be totally covered is ideal.

The one on the left was a pale yellow before I tied it in the zig-zag pattern and overdyed it with fuschia. If I can figure out how to get the several thicknesses of fabric at the hips to come out better, I'll be happy. The little t-shirt was also pleated for zig-zag. I think I see what the problem is with the yellow and blue together: the turquoise dye, without thickener, tends to bleed/spread freely. See how it has bled into the yellow at almost every point they touch. Where the red does not do so as much.

See, in the outfit on the left, how the purple is edged with turquoise. Here's another example of how the turquoise spreads more freely (in this case, the purple was a 2:1 mix of fuschia and turquoise).  To achieve the pattern, I pleated it more or less straight and then applied the dye in a spiral up and around and around, to the collar. I saturated the collar entirely. This was a pastel pink knit before being overdyed.  The one on the right was supposed to have a yellow star in the middle of the chest. It didn't work quite as well as I wanted. I sewed around the edges of a star-shape and pulled it tight, but couldn't band it tightly enough. Or something. It would have worked with a circle, or maybe even a heart. Anyway, the stripes are nice. :D

I might want to stick with the traditional spiral, if I'm going to work in multiple colors. The spiral turns out gorgeous, but the one below, which included purple as well as blue and green, is iffy.

November 12

The middle one, Victoria actually did the dyeing. I did the twisting, trying for a double spiral. Hm.  The first one, I painted the outside with a pastry brush dipped in dye. I wanted to make sure I did not ruin the embroidered flowers, and I seem to have done okay. It's not displeasing.  But ah, the third one....I wanted to save the 'Baby Gap' embroidery in the middle of the chest, and I managed to make a beautiful spider's web or bulls-eye setting it off. I like that effect.

Nov 13

I'm trying to re-create the zigzag rainbow. This one I think I made the pleats too small, besides them not facing the right direction. But I still like it.  Would you believe it was originally pastel pink? Even the yellow came through bright and clear.  The two purple things were vat-dyed. I should have stirred them more often, because the color came out uneven. However, as the tags on expensive clothing often says "Variations in color are normal..." and the variations are subtle besides. The purples are all 6-9 month sizes.

Nov 21

I'm going through a stack of newborn-size onesies which were outgrown a while back, and were slated to go to the crisis pregnancy center at my mom's church. All these onesies are going to go there (unless somebody wants to buy one off me!). I figure moms in crisis pregnancies can't afford tie dye, and they might enjoy the bright colors.  I'm most pleased with the blue tiger-striped one, and have since made one in XL for my husband. The other outfit was done in a zig-zag, purple on a pink outfit. I got the 'halo' effect, and for a while I was worried I had some bad back-staining of pink on the light areas, but that washed out.

Here's my first attempt at an adult-sized shirt. This was an unbleached organic tee in XL for my husband.  He liked the tiger-stripe look, so I made one for him. Next time I'll make it so the lines slant the other direction, and maybe use a slightly darker blue.

I think the one on the left is a good example of "If you want consistent results, do the same thing every time." Because I didn't.  It's not awful, and it's a 3-6 month size so I'll definitely be putting it on the G-baby (I love the splashes of bright yellow and red if nothing else), but it wasn't what I'd really had in mind.  Also you can see where the dye, which totally saturated the fabric, pooled at the bottom of the bundle and basically merged into a dark muddle. Too bad, too. I had it sitting on a glass custard cup inside the Gladware container, precisely so it wouldn't be sitting in a puddle of excess dye. But I thought the excess would drip off. I'm not sure what to do about this excess. If I put it on a wad of paper towels, I don't know. I'll have to consult with the tie-dye group I'm a member of.

The onesie is a tiger-striped, saturated on one side with deep orange, and the other with fuschia. The colors go together wonderfully and black would have marred the effect. This one is a 'large', fitting 25-32 lbs.(12-18 months, I guess).

I do love the purple. This dalmatian type splotched shirt was just scrunched up tightly in a 1-cup Gladware container and squirted with purple. I did another in green and blue, but it turned out so awful that I'm not posting it. Ahem.

I'm beginning to get very consistent results now, when I tie up the creepers. I *am* tying them now, rather than rubber-banding them. I read about using artificial sinew, and I get a much tighter tie that also (more importantly) unties more easily. I think these look a bit like rainbow giraffes. :) The blue is a 0-3mo and is going to the CPC. The pink is a 3-6mo and is going into G-baby's drawer. These were, respectively, blue and pink. I tied them up and applied bands of the darker color. I still don't know why I don't get complete saturation, but get the spots instead. Doesn't matter - it's not a flaw, not in tie-dye. I love them and I get a lot of comments (and stares, and smiles) from people when I dress her up in them and take her out.

Nov 29

I really like the blue one and the black-and-red one. I'm supremely disappointed with the crumpled orange one. So much for THAT technique!  The blue was pleated sideways in the middle, and tied VERY tightly with artificial sinew.  Blue was drizzled down the middle on top and bottom, and then it was painted (using a paintbrush) with black  The ends were crumpled and banded-and-tied.  The red-and-black one was originally red. I did a standard swirl, then painted it all over with black. I *like* how it looks. I'm going to do it in a size 10/12 for my nephew for Christmas.

This is my second attempt at a striped shirt in size XL for my husband. Very tigerish.

Dec 2

Here is a cotton/lycra (90% cotton, 10% lycra) leotard vat-dyed in 'Fire Red'. The skirt is attached and nylon, so it wouldn't take up any of the dye. An interesting look, and Emmaline adores it. She'll wear it to her tap/ballet class. She's complained that the nylon leotard she's been wearing is *cold*, so I spent a lot of time and energy finding somebody who would sell me either a red leotard in cotton, or a white one I could dye.  Got this one on sale from www.riversedgedancewear.com, $14. I liked that. :) I even bought (and dyed) 2 identically, so Emmaline can outgrow this one, and grow into the next size up.

I really like the 'rippled water' effect of this creeper. I folded it in the zigzag pattern, as the rainbow ones above, but instead of making bands of color, I ran a single color along the length, top and bottom. I was not expecting what I got. But that's the best part!  The two onesies were folded in half in the middle, and then twisted from the bottom side of the leg-holes. They give a lovely mirror image.

Dec 3.

I'm not sure what happened on this creeper. Perhaps the cotton fiber content was less than 80% - I don't know, that tag is missing. It simply didn't retain the dye I put onto it.  I mean, this one had been heavily saturated in fuschia, and sat there for for 48 hours. Go figure?

The shirt, a boy's size 10/12, started out red. I twisted it as for a swirl, and painted it with black. That's it. It, too, sat for 48 hours. It's a Christmas present for one of my nephews. I'm still mulling what to do for the younger nephew. And what to do for my nieces - I bought shirts to dye, today, but I'm still trying to think what's best to do for each of them. Their mom will hopefully see this page and point me at something she thinks her kids will really like. (I gave her the URL.)

A christmas shirt for one of my nieces - though I did better ones and my brother chose them instead. Also, more onesies for the CPC.

 Here we go: a perfect example of how some things just don't work out (far right). But since this was a zip-closed creeper, I couldn't fold it as I do the others. The zipper just wouldn't fold.  I love the middle one. The colors are just rich.

Dec 9

More Christmas shirts for my nieces.  I'm having a hard time finding solid colored, long-sleeved knit shirts in the smaller sizes for my youngest niece (8 but very small for her age). Also, more creepers and a delightful little pair of short overalls, sent me by a lady from misc.kids.breastfeeding to donate to the CPC. There was another shirt, intended for my nephew, but it just didn't turn out. I didn't want to bother taking a picture, it was that bad.

Shirts for the CPC (#1). Shirts for my younger nephew for Christmas (#2 and #3). The middle one is a very dark green, with black overlaid swirls (like the red one with black swirls from Dec. 3). It turned out so dark that the pattern is hard to see. With the 'Polo' shirt, I wanted to leave the brand name imprint readable, so I dyed around it. I think it turned out quite well.

The pants are *so* mod.  The first two (pants and shirt) were twisted up for a swirl, and dyed in wedges, but using only a single color. I'm still working on a way to deliver the dye more precisely so it leaves wider swirls of white (or base color) - I'm trying a chef's syringe; we'll see how it works.  The third shirt was pink; I twirled it up and painted it black all over. I really like that effect. These will all go to the CPC. Except the pants, I think I'll have G-baby wear those first. There were others in this lot but as they were nothing remarkable, I didn't photograph them.

Contact me at: chotii@oz.net