Thursday, October 27, 2011

Dyeing Cotton T's with Kool Aid

Do you know how hard it is to find a simple long sleeve plain onesie? How about one that's a solid color? All I needed was a dark red onesie, no ruffles  (it's for Wyatt) no designs, just plain. 

Wow. Harder than I thought. 


So I picked up a pack of onesies, and some Kool Aid 
( where I was didn't have dye, I thought I would save myself a trip),



To Dye with Kool Aid, I decided to use my crock pot. I saw this tutorial on how to dye yarn so I thought it would work with a onesie too. 
And I found this tutorial with what flavors make what colors.


First, I put my T in my crockpot and turned on HIGH.


Next I covered the onesie with water, and walked away for an hour. 
I wanted the onesie to not have any dry spots for the Koolaid to not adhere to.


After the onesie was wet and warm, I added in my Kool Aid. Because I wanted a red and not pink, I put in more than one pack of Kool Aid.  At first I put in a Tropical Punch, and it was very light, and I knew in my gut it would be pink. So I then added TWO Black cherry packets.  

Then I walked away for 2 days! I would turn the crock pot on an off periodically.

Here's what I got. 



Yawn. By looking at the onesie in the Kool Aid I really thought it would be darker. Bummer.

I guess the moral of this story is: 
 If you want deep dark colors go with dye.

If you don't care what color you come out with and if you are getting kids involved. 

Try different fabrics.
 I thought Cotton would be the easiest. I guess not. 

9 comments:

  1. Oh wow, how cute and clever is that! I would not have thought of that. Thanks for the heads up about the cool aid Ÿ

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  2. Still a great idea! I was just having the same issue try to find something plain for holiday photos. I was planning to have to photoshop the graphics out of his onesie.

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  3. Wow. I never would've thought to try to dye with Kool Aid! I mean, I've heard of doing your hair that way... haha. But not clothing! What a fun idea! Even if not as dark as you wanted... Thanks for sharing on Fancy This Fridays!!!

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  4. I'm glad you shared this even though it didn't end up as dark as you wanted. I still think it would be fun to try.
    Rachel
    adventuresofadiymom.blogspot.com

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  5. ..thanks a lot for sharing that information..

    *_* maica *_* Buy and Sell

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  6. I know this is kind of late, but I've studied dyes and have used Kool Aid to dye things. The problem is that Kool Aid and food coloring do not work on cotton! They only work on natural animal fibers (like wool yarn, or human hair). You have to use an acid-based dye for cotton or synthetic colors. That's why the dye did not work on your cotton onesie!

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  7. When I did yarn, I added small amounts of food dye to change or darken colors and it worked good. There is enough citric acid in the Koolaid powder to handle extra dye :-)

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