Girl blankets for a boy

This weekend I tried dying clothes at home! I read online somewhere about how easy dying clothing in the washing machine is, so that was my original plan. Once I read the RIT dye package, I decided the stovetop method would probably work better, because even though our HE washer has a hot setting, I was unsure about putting salt in my machine.

Getting ready

Overall, I just followed the directions on the package of navy blue dye, pre-dissolving the dye in 2 cups of hot water and adding a cup of salt (I used canning salt and the kitchen smelled like canning pickles), simmering the clothes for 30 minutes in 2 gallons of water while stirring constantly, and then rinsing the clothes in warm water until the water ran clear. Rinsing took just as long as simmering. Once that was finished, I stuck them in the washing machine for 2 cycles. The bathtub sustained some color damage, but nothing a little bleach couldn't handle. On the plus side, our bathtub has never been so clean!

I dyed a bright red maternity sweater and 2 pink "Swaddle me" blankets from the salvation army. The sweater, I only wore a couple times because I don't look very good in red. Hopefully, the weather will get chilly enough by the end of October for me to break out the winter maternity clothes, now that this sweater is a more appealing color. The pink blankets, I picked up recently, being too good a deal to pass up at 99 cents apiece. Unlike Daniel, I am hopeless at swaddling with a real blanket, so these are awesome.

After

Unfortunately, I didn't take any before pictures, but I am so happy with how the blankets turned out! The white and dark polka dots showed through on one blanket, but that's OK. I might sew some yellow stars on the plain blanket if I get bored this week.
The navy blue dye turned my bright red sweater into a nice maroon color. It's a very soft sweater, so I am hoping for a chance to wear it! After so many months, most of my summer maternity clothes have lost their appeal.

After

This was a fun project. Not as fun as tie dying was as a kid, but almost. I would be up for doing it again.
By the way, the dye was half the price at Michael's than it was at Joann's, and that is without coupons.