Prefolds have come to be our daytime cloth diaper of choice. Honestly, we’ve had leaks with every type of diaper, other than prefolds. Depending on Monkey’s size, we seem to always have 24 in rotation…with a few all-in-ones, pockets, and fitteds mixed in.
Since this is my first child, and subsequently my first time cloth diapering, I’ve been making an effort to buy different brands as Monkey grows. The problem with this, though, is that different brands use different colored thread for the stitching. So, we ended up with 24 yellow edged pre-folds…12 in one size, and 12 in another. It started to get really annoying when doing diaper laundry because I used the smaller sized yellow prefolds as inserts or doublers, and the larger size as actual diapers. I was having to hold them up to each other when folding laundry to figure out which was which. Finally, I had the idea to dye the smaller size!
I happened to have some dye stored away with my craft stuff – not sure if I bought it in my pre-crunchy days, or if someone gave it to me or what, but I’d rather use it than just get rid of it…and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. At some point I hope to try out dying some prefolds with fruits and/or veggies! *added to long term to-do list*
This adventure was fun and I was totally thrilled with the results. I did a few extra washes/rinses to make sure that all of the dye was rinsed out and wouldn’t irritate Monkey’s delicate skin.
+ Salt
+ Rubber Gloves
+ Prefolds (mine were organic, unbleached cotton)
+ Fabric Dye (I had some dylon dye on hand)
+ Bucket
What to do:
*Note – I don’t like to follow instructions, so my ‘how-to’ is very different than what’s on the back of the package. The package calls for continual stirring for like 15 minutes at a time. I did NOT have time to do this with a little baby…and the husband was out of town, so I improvised. This is probably why I suck at cooking…because I rarely follow recipes.
1. If you want your prefolds to come out as bright as advertised on the package of dye, follow the instructions listed for weighing your fabric. I had 12 prefolds and 3 packs of dye, so I just did 4 in each bucket. I think the colors came out pretty vibrant! Just keep in mind that this tutorial uses one packet per four prefolds.
2. Add the packet of dye and one cup of salt to your dying bucket.
3. Slowly add 6 liters of warm water. Careful not to let the dye splash up on you!
4. Put on your rubber gloves and stir until well mixed. I stirred one color, then rinsed off the gloves, then moved onto another color. Worked fine for me! No need to be meticulous here, if you get one or two drops of orange dye in the blue dye, it’s not going to be a big deal.
5. Add your fabric to the bucket. I put on the gloves, added 4 prefolds to one color and stirred for about 3 or 4 minutes. Then, I rinsed off the gloves and did the same with the other two colors. Make sure that you push the fabric below the surface of the water when you move to the next color. Sometimes, the fabric kept popping above the surface, so I added a bit of water.
6. Wait 30 minutes.
7. Stir each color again for 3-4 minutes each.
8. Wait 30 minutes.
9. Rinse for just a minute or two in utility sink, then throw in washing machine and do just a cold rinse. I did this with each color individually. *If you don’t have a utility sink, I’m sure you could just throw the diapers straight into the wash. I’ve read tutorials where people have done the entire dying process in the washing machine.
10. After each color has been through a cold rinse cycle, wash all colors together like normal with detergent. (Hot wash/cold rinse)
11. Repeat hot wash/cold rinse with detergent. This step might not be necessary, but I wanted to make sure all of the dye was out so that it wouldn’t irritate Monkey’s bum.
12. Hot wash/cold rinse with no detergent.
13. Extra rinse if you feel it’s necessary.
14. Dry by hang drying or in dryer. (I used the dryer because I’ve read that the dye can leave the fabric kind-of stiff at first, so I hoped to fluff it up a bit)
Have you dyed your prefolds or other cloth diapers? How did they turn out and what type of dye did you use?
April 30, 2012
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Hi and welcome! I'm Jenny - a green living new momma, adoring wife, and MSU fan.
I was seriously considering dying my prefolds this week using that exact brand of dye. Thank you so much for this post! I can’t wait to have a brand spanking ‘new’ stack of colored prefolds – so fun!
Yay, I’m so glad I could be of help! Let me know how it goes once you’re done :)
I’ve dyed prefolds using Dharma Trading dyes with great result. I want to do it again this time with the newborn sized prefolds but I can’t decide on colors!
Awesome! DO IT :) I say…purple!
Thanks for this – I read this post yesterday actually and made myself some purple prefolds :)
Awesome! Purple would be great :)
great tutorial! since we live in an apartment i’d probably just wash them by hand a million times, but that’s okay. i love the orange ones you dyed!
What a great idea! The colors look great!!
Awesome colors! I don’t have any prefolds, but if I did, I’d want them colored. White just isn’t my color! lol
This is so neat! I would have never thought of this. It is going on Pinterest :]
Thanks!
That is a really good idea!
I never thought about doing this. This is really cute and would be adorable for burp cloths too.
I’m planning on dying some flats for the flats/handwashing challenge.
Did anyone have any problems with running after the prefolds where dyed?? have been wanting to dye mine but am worried about running or rubbing off on his bum after they get wet??
Nope – I’ve never had these problems! After the first rinse cycle through the washer, they didn’t run at all. As long as you do a couple of washing machine rinses, you should be fine! I say washing machine, because I feel like it would be REALLY hard to get all of the dye out by hand.
Thank you very much! it was just a concern i think i am going to try doing half of the prefolds first since we cloth diaper souly. my son has no idea what a disposable diaper is lol.
I love that your son has no idea what a disposable diaper is! Good luck – I hope it turns out great. And seriously, don’t worry about it bleeding…it won’t! Just be careful before they go through the rinse because they will drip everywhere!
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Hey, I would give second thoughts to dying prefolds, or anything that is on your baby’s skin. When I was pregnant, by hairdresser warned me not to use any permanent hair dye, and that’s the stuff that they say is ok for your skin, vs. something like Dylon, which explicitly says isn’t safe for hair or skin. There is no FDA regulation on this sort of thing, so there is no way to know whether it contains residual carcinogens. As mothers who care enough about our babies to cloth diaper, please consider just skipping this and putting exclusively undyed natural fibers on your little one’s skin! See the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (http://safecosmetics.org/) .
They say you should dye your hair not so much because the dye harming you as much as the chemicals you are inhaling while you are pregnant. And before i believed my hairdresser i would discuss it with a doctor. Witch i did! And he said that they more worry about the chemicals making you sick. And my prefolds have been dyed and my son is fine! Still happy and content. And i would like to know why?? Why is dye that people use to dye thousands of different things i am sure hundreds of times a day bad?? i have not seen anything on the news saying “dye making thousands of locals sick” if dye is soo bad why dont we hear more about it?? And what about his clothes??? should i throw them all away and only buy un-dyed clothes??
I have some stained prefolds that could REALLY benefit from some dye. Thanks for the instructions! As soon as the next fit of nesting hits I’ll be dyeing up a storm!
No problem – haha I had to laugh when I read your comment. I totally get the nesting thing…in fact, I can’t wait until I’m pregnant with number 2 and start nesting again. My house was SO clean!
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