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Attachment Parenting
3003girl
member
Who dyes wraps?
3003girl
member
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Who dyes wraps?
Yeah, Kwinters has a dye business- you can find it on facebook under KrystalKlear
If you're just looking for dyeing advice though, I've dyed several wraps myself and could help out possibly.
Well, I just bought a Rosa (linen) and I'd like to dye it. hmm.. I could possibly do it myself, but am worried about the chemicals and such. And I'd like to do a grad.
Is it hard? I guess that is a very broad question!
I would recommend buying a cheap tablecloth and doing a couple of practice rounds before actually dying a wrap. It's really not "that" hard- if you're crafty, and like a new challenge, it's actually quite fun. There are some good tutorials/instructions over on TheBabywearer in the Chatter: Wrappers Paradise forum, if you just do a quick search.
As far as the chemicals go- Soda ash is a pool chemical. As long as you wear gloves, a face mask, and googles, and wash up afterwared, you'll be fine. The dyes, once fixed with soda ash and rinsed clean, aren't a big deal either- most of your clothing that is colored is dyed in a similar process in manufacturing. I actually just got finished grad dying my rosa- she's not the easiest of wraps to grad dye, IMO- she gets harder lines than indios and the 55 linens, but, she still looks nice, I think. This was my second attempt at grad dyeing her.
Dharma Trading Co. is where I purchase my supplies- I would NOT purchase soda ash or salt through them though- just go to a local pool supply store and the grocery (I get big boxes of pickling salt) and they'll have it there (sodium bicarbonate is what you're looking for, if it's not called soda ash). You will need to purchase Synthropol through them (or Dharma's version of it, which is what I've always bought) in order to properlly rinse the dye from the wrap, as well as to prep it before dying to remove any oils, etc... For Rosa, you'd want to purchase Procion dye. Silk wraps can be dyed with Procion, or Acid dye (or both). Wool you do not ever want to use Acid or Procion on- only food safe dyes, b/c it is REALLY hard to rinse the dye properly out of wool since you can't run it through the wash and agitate it on hot water, like a wrap really needs to be properly rinsed.
As far as setting up a grad, you need to hang it from something- if you have a tension rod in your shower, you can use it, if not, they have them fairly cheap at like Target or walmart. You'll also need pant hangers- I would use exactly the same kind, otherwise the heights of the hangers can be different and cause your grad to be uneven. You can either dip the grad by slowly lowering the rod (this is my preferred method) or you can add water/salt solution to the dye bath as you want to increase the water level.
I know this is a lot of info- if you decide to tackle it yourself, just read, read, and read some more, until you feel confident enough to give it a whirl on a tester. Seriously though, once you start, you keep finding yourself wanting to buy new wraps to dye- it's rather addictive!
Check out this site for instructions: Paula Birch has tons of resources about dyeing. Or this one: from Dharma. Dharma trading is also a great place to buy the dyes as PP said.
Also as PP said the soda ash, salt and urea can all be purchased cheaply elsewhere. You can find urea as a fertilizer in a garden store, I get coated urea in bulk at out local farmer's supply store for really cheap.
I recently did a Black/purple/blue gradation dye on a wrap for a friend and loved doing it. I did each colour as a separate dip, one on top of the other so that I could get a really pure blue along one rail and a good black along the other.
The Dharma site does a good job of explaining how to do it- but I've always done a dip in just a soda ash solution after I've dyed the wrap- I feel like I get less obvious lines that way. And I've not used urea for procion dyes- just salt and soda ash, per Dharma's instructions. Is there a reason you use it?