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Easily add a pop of color to children’s clothes with Dylon dyes

by Allison Spence

This week I’m playing with Dylon’s selection of fabric dyes. Tuesday we looked at their Permanent Fabric dyes and yesterday I experimented with their Multi-Purpose dyes. I’ve shown you how I dyed some quilting cottons and my new red wardrobe. Today I’m going to show you what I did to brighten my new grandson’s wardrobe.

My new Grandson wrapped in his receiving blanket that was dyed with Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes in China Blue.

Grandson in his new receiving blanket

When my granddaughter was born my daughter complained that the receiving blankets she had were too small. Something always seemed to be sticking out. So I purchased some pretty printed flannel fabric and cut and serged the edges to make 40″ square blankets. This time around she asked for some more blankets as they knew they were having a boy and didn’t want to use any of the ‘girly’ blankets from last time. So, of course, I made some more.

A rainbow of hand dyed receiving blankets using Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes in China Blue, Bahama Blue, Tropical Green, Sunflower Yellow, Goldfish Orange and Tulip Red.

A rainbow of hand dyed receiving blankets.

Since I was looking after my granddaughter for a few days last week, we took the opportunity to have a dye day and had lots of fun. We used Dylon Permanet Dyes in China Blue, Bahama Blue, Tropical Green, Sunflower Yellow, Goldfish Orange and Tulip Red.

I also purchased some onesies in newborn and 6 month sizes. We used the Dylon Permanent dyes to dye both the cotton onesies and the flannel receiving blankets. Since then, my daughter has already used them and says she hasn’t seen any color bleeding or color transfer.

A rainbow of hand dyed onesies using Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes in China Blue, Bahama Blue, Tropical Green, Sunflower Yellow, Goldfish Orange and Tulip Red.

A rainbow of hand dyed onesies.

I also tried to ice dye some of the blankets and onesies. First, I wet the fabric and scrunched it into a basket that would drain well. Next, I loaded ice cubes on top and sprinkled three different dye powders on top of them. I left everything to sit until the ice cubes had all melted.

I used powdered Dylon dye sprinkled directly on ice cubes and allowed the ice to melt to dye the fabric.

Ice dyeing with Dylon dyes

Personally, I’m not sure if I like the look, but my daughter likes them. For the ice dyeing I used three colors of Dylon Permanent Fabric Dye: Navy Blue, Sunflower Yellow and Tulip Red. The colors blended and even though color theory states that blue and yellow make green, the navy was too intense and the places where the colors met turned kind of grey.

Once rinsed and dried, the randomness of the Dylon dyes really shows in these ice dyed onesies and receiving blankets.

Ice dyed onesies and receiving blankets

My granddaughter wanted to help me ‘paint’ fabric, so I set her up with a couple of white undershirts and a cotton dress. She painted her outfits with dye solution in Bahama Blue and Flamingo Pink using squirt bottles.

This is a cleaner way to use Dylon Permanent Fabric dyes by putting it into squirt bottles to dye fabric.

Painting fabric with squirt bottles

We also dyed a bit of cotton fabric in the same two colors. I added the fabric to the bottom of the shirts and made some simple summer dresses for her. She’s quite a camera shy, but I was able to get a few pictures of her in one of the dresses.

I sew a gathered skirt to the bottom of a hand dyed undershirt for a lovely painted summer dress.

Painted summer dress

This has been a fun week playing with fabric dyes. I’ve got one more day and one more project to go. I have a young friend who’s graduating high school in June. Her favorite colors are purple and grey, so I’ve dyed some fabric and will show you what I’m doing tomorrow with my selection of Dylon Permanent Fabric Dyes.

This is part 4 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 3: Let’s stir the pot, 3 variables affecting Dylon Multi-Purpose dyes

Go to part 5: Disappearing 4 patch blocks get extra texture with hand dyed fabrics

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