Woollyness

Dyeing woolly blankets.

You will need a 100% wool blanket, and one (or more- see below) tins of Dylon multi purpose dye *

Tear the blanket into manageable sized pieces - I normally tear it into eighths.

Dunking two** pieces of the blanket at a time, I follow the basic manufacturers instructions here (click on the link for multi-purpose dye).  However, although I mix the dye up and add to a large pot of water as written, I then veer away from any exact instructions.

The amount of water that goes into my big old pot varies, and I usually forget how long the blanket has been simmering away, so it ends up cooking for longer than specified .This doesn't matter though, wool is only supposed to get 10 mins dunking on a gentle simmer to avoid any shrinking, but we want the wool to felt as much as possible, so leave it for longer, say half an hour (ish).

When done, remove from the pan , allow to cool, and rinse as instructed.

Look at the state of my poor wooden worktop. I am a bad woman.

Do not throw away the dye bath as instructed - that would be a waste, but use it for dyeing your next two pieces. You will get a paler colour, which is what makes it fun - you don't how it's going to look until it'd done.

You can repeat this process, using the whole blanket, depending how pale you want to go. Just top up the dye pot with boiling water if neccesary.

You can also add further dyes to your dye pot for interesting results. In this case, for the first two dips I used Dylon 'Coffee' and then threw some Dylon Black into the pot, to get some lovely black/ greys,

Bottom up ( as the actress said to the Bishop)

Ist dipping with black

Two further dunkings to produce some lovely greys

Ist dip with Coffee

2nd Coffee dip.

At the top is some creamy white blanket which I left undyed.

All ready to be made into teddies, kittens, puppies and elephants etc.

* I use Dylon as it's pretty much all we get over here, but I'm sure this method can be used with other hot/cold hand dyes as long as you follow the manufacturers mixing/rinsing out instructions.

** If you want more of the first colour, you can put 4 or possibly more pieces in at a time, try it.

Have fun. Do let me know if you give it a go , I'd love to see what colours you achieve.

Update... Please read Karen's comment below, re colourfastness. I have hand washed some of my woolly fabrics, with a very mild detergent, and had no problems. But Dylon do state that colourfastness isn't guaranteed with the all purpose dye, and to wash separately. Thanks for pointing that out Karen. : )

Comments

[Melissa]

Thank You so much for this post and now I am off to buy kool-aid:)

[Kristin]

Gorgeous colors and great tips. Thanks!

[Alicia P.]

You really do know how to do everything, don't you? Gorgeous!

[christina]

that you for the wonderful tips. I hope you don't live in PDX or I will never find thrifted blankets. yours look amazing.

[Krista]

I've just tried your tutorial and wanted to let you know, it's up at my blog right here. What fun!

[kathy]

Thanks for sharing all the detailed pics of this process. It's really inspiring and is giving me all kinds of ideas that I have absolutely no time for! I LOVE the overdye on the blanket stripes.

[natascha]

Thanks for showing it!! I don't have wool blankets now but it' s very very interesting!

[Anna H.]

Ooooooooh! Guess what I'll be doing today with the blanket I bought on Friday? Yes, there are other things that need doing, but can you think of a better way for a girl to spend her last day of vacation? I can't...

Will send you photos of the results (eeeek!)

xxoo

[Wandy]

For fabric dyeing tips you can go to this website…
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing.shtml

Also you may want to try these folks a try if you have something that you want to dye professionally.

http://www.spectrumfirm.com