Monday 20 April 2015

Brighten up your Old Muslin's!

I had a load of muslin's from previously that were either blue or white, naturally having a pink bundle on the way I wanted to buy some nice new pink ones but wondered what to do with the others as I didn't want to throw them away or waste them. One of my friends on a baby group had a brilliant idea to hand dye them to give them a new lease of life. She had already dyed some of hers and impressed with just how good they looked I decided that I'd give it go and if it all went wrong I wouldn't have wasted too much money.

It's really incredibly simple to do, much more than I originally thought and with a little bit of effort I've got a batch of lovely bright muslins to add to my collection. I purchased two packs of different colour Dylon dyes from Ebay for £2.99 a sachet, I chose the colours Powder Pink and Flamingo Pink so there would be a variation in the pinks. I had chosen to dye a couple of blue muslin's too so rather than purchasing a purple dye, instead would use the Flamingo Pink and see what result was achieved from that.


I chose a day when the weather was ok so that I could hang them out to dry once dyed and a day when I had a spare afternoon because it was fairly time consuming. I did two batches separately starting with the lighter of the two as I'd be using the same sink and didn't want to contaminate the colour. The advice is to use a stainless steel sink or bucket when dyeing to prevent staining and I can confirm that there was no staining at all in my sink afterwards.

First step is to weigh the items to be dyed dry so you know the weight and whether 1 sachet per load will be enough, all the instructions on the pack are very self explanatory and easy to follow. The items are then washed and left damp prior to dyeing, I just did a quick hand wash and left it at that.

The next step is to dissolve the dye in 500ml of hot water and stir to dissolve. Add around 6 pints of hot water to the sink and 10 tbsp of salt (I used normal table salt and this is perfectly fine). Add the dye to the water and then add your material to be dyed. 



Then comes the time consuming bit, stir continuously for 15 minutes making sure that the fabric is agitated and fully coated, it's a bit of a pain to stand there stirring for 15 minutes but it's worth the effort. Once stirred for the required time, leave for 45 minutes stirring occasionally. 

Once this process is completed wash the items in cold water, then again in warm water and put it out to dry away from direct sunlight and heat. 

Et voila you should have a great set of muslin's with a new lease of life! As you can see from the picture below the muslin's that were blue have turned a gorgeous purpley shade which is exactly what I was hoping for so I'm really pleased I didn't buy a purple dye too!!

I am so chuffed with the results and it's well worth the effort for minimal cost.


Would you dye your old muslins to liven them up? I would definitely do it again and it was actually quite relaxing!

MaternityMondays

 

 clairejustine

Mummascribbles

13 comments:

  1. Great idea!! I'm a big fan of a quick DIY myself!!

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    1. I honestly was so chuffed with how they turned out much better than I expected. Thanks for the comment X

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  2. Ooh they turned out so nice! A great idea :)

    Carolyn #mummymonday

    http://stylishmemories.com

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  3. What a great idea! Love this, am a bit creative myself and what a great way to save money on buying new ones Jen XOXO www.highheelsandbabywheels.com #mummymonday

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    1. It was just nice not to waste them and now they look all fresh and bright and wash really well too :-) x

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  4. great idea, they look good. One question though, have you washed them since with other stuff? I'd be concerned I'd turn all my other washing flamingo pink if the dye ran ;) #MaternityMondays

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    1. Yes they wash absolutely fine, you cold hand wash them first which I assume sets the dye but I have washed them and had no issues thankfully! x

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  5. Must admit muslins were the most useful thing we bought out of all the baby stuff and they're are still being used now (Caitlin is 8 this year). Probably well past the dyeing stage but this looks really easy to do. #twinklytuesday

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    1. They are very handy, I seem to be going through loads at the moment! x

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  6. What a great idea Helen, mine when I eventually threw them out were a lovely greyish colour!

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  7. What a fab idea! We have loads of muslins stashed away for if we have baby number two! I shall have to remember this idea!! Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday

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  8. I'm so going to admit a little secret here (hopefully no one sees this but you haha!) but I was obsessed with muslins as a child. I called them "mapmaps". I always had one under my pillow as I got to my teens encase I needed a good old cry - it even came with me when I gave birth. Corey got this obsessed for first 2 years. I didn't dare part with them. So I'm going to do this amazing trick and thank you so much for sharing this :) I'm so excited to do this!!

    thankyou for joining in with #mummymonday - love Gemma - host xo
    www.sunshineonacloudyday.co.uk

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