Tea Dying Old Onesies
Baby Ruth is our 3rd child and the poor girl is destined to wear more
than her fair share of hand-me-downs. Like this pile of
onesies...already worn by one brother and one sister...not as bright as
they used to be...and even a little stained...
But instead of making her wear them all dingy and sad I wanted to make
them over into something I would actually want to put Ruth in. Finally I
decided that the best solution would be dye. And I set about to revive
an old love of mine----the tea dye.
Tea dying is easy I just follow these simple steps:
#1. Get your garment wet. (I just ran mine under some warm water and then wrung out the excess.)
#2.
Submerge your garment in a warm tea bath. (I just boiled water in a pot
on the stove, added several Lipton tea packets, let simmer until my
water turned a nice deep shade of brown and then let it cool down before
adding the clothing.)
#3. Let your garment sit in the
bath until you get the color you desire. (Actually I let mine get a
little darker to compensate for the rinse to follow.)
#4. Rinse your garment until the water runs clear.
#5. Dry in the drier to set the color.
Once I was finished with that process I started adding things like lace
and buttons to the onesies to make them a little more girly. (They
really didn't need anything added, I forgot how much I love anything tea
dyed, but I couldn't help myself and out came the trim bin.)
It was a simple, old fashioned project but I kind of love it. (And I
always like the idea of giving something old new life again.) Now I just
need Ruth to get big enough to wear them.
