(emily)
One of the cool things about cloth diapering is that cloth diapers come in so many colors and patterns. Cloth diapers can add a little extra style and flair to your baby’s wardrobe, and recently we found a cool way to personalize your cloth diapers even more.
A few months ago GroVia shared how to dye their Kiwi Pie wool diaper covers, and we thought that sounded like so much fun, we decided to do our own! It was really easy (not to mention inexpensive), and gave us a beautiful and bright wool diaper cover!
We love orange, and so does Franklin, so we headed to the grocery store to pick up 4 packets of orange Kool Aid and a few other items. Using 4 Kool Aid packets help bring out that vibrant orange.
What You’ll Need:
- Dawn dish soap
- Kosher salt
- White vinegar
- 4 Kool Aid packets of whichever color you’d like (Tip: Double-check the flavor of the Kool Aid packet to ensure you got the right color instead of going by the color of the packet.)
- Rubber gloves
- Metal pot, large
To Prepare Your Kiwi Pie:
1) In your sink or a large bowl, immerse the wool Kiwi Pie cover in water with a drop of Dawn dish soap. In order for the dye to take, the Kiwi Pie must be stripped of its lanolin.
2) Rinse well. Roll in a towel to help remove the excess water, but leave damp.
To Dye Your Kiwi Pie:
1) Fill a large metal pot 2/3 with tepid water. Add 2 tsp of kosher salt. The salt will soften the water and allow the dye to disperse.
2) Add 1 cup white vinegar, and your 4 packets of Kool Aid. Stir with a metal spoon until all of the mixture has dissolved.
3) Take your damp, lanolin-free Kiwi Pie wool cover and immerse it completely in the dye mixture. While wearing your gloves, work the dye into the seams of the Kiwi Pie.
4) Place your pot on the stove and turn the burner to medium heat. Slowly turn it up to high to achieve a light boil. Stir the cover every 5-10 minutes. Once your dye mixture begins to boil, turn off the burner.
Note: The Grovia Kiwi Pie wool diaper cover includes Spandex. The Spandex keeps the wool from felting and shrinking, but an item made of 100% wool could experience felting and shrinking if the heat is raised too quickly.
5) Continue to stir every 5-10 minutes until the mixture has cooled. The water will begin to look lighter and the wool darker.
6) Once the water has cooled and you can touch it without risking a burn, remove the pot from the stove and pour off the residual dye liquid into your sink. Run cool water over the diaper cover to thoroughly rinse it. Keep doing this until the water running off the diaper cover no longer retains color. Squeezing the diaper cover gently is fine, but don’t ring it out.
7) Finally, give your wool diaper cover a vinegar bath. Fill your sink or a large bowl with a few inches of water. Add 2 cups of white vinegar and let your freshly rinsed wool cover to soak for 15 minutes. Rinse it well once more, and roll it into a towel to remove any excess water.
Note: Having removed the lanolin, you will need to lanolize your wool cover once more after the dyeing process is complete. Otherwise your wool cover will leak.
Once your diaper cover has been lanolized and is dry, it can be put to use!
Our GroVia Kiwi Pie wool diaper cover is available to buy at our Richmond, VA store and online.