I’m sure there are better ways to do this, but this is how I did it. Last weekend I tie-dyed 24 new infant prefold diapers I got for our impending arrival. Yes, I know #2 isn’t slated to make an arrival until December, but I wanted to start getting ready.

Materials:
- 24 (2 dozen) infant Indian prefold diapers, purchased on ebay from granitesmith. Cost $37.98 (not including shipping).
- 1 “serious starter” tie-dye kit from Dharma Trading. $23.95 (not including shipping).

Reasons for choosing what I did:
- I chose the diapers I did because we like prefolds for babies. Babies are constantly doing their, uh, thing, and this is an economical and easy way to get started on cloth until they slow down in growth and can have some serious use out of other fancier schmancier diapers (goodmama, I’m looking at you!). Plus, they’re durable and can take a beating, and can be used for years after the diapers are done with their intended purpose. Score.

- Procion dyes - I was looking for something with a good reputation and that would be good for cotton. And they were fairly cheap in price. I can dig it.

Preparing the diapers
Before I started the dying process, I prepped the diapers by washing them in hot with a bit of detergent, and drying them on hot as well - I did this a few times until they were fluffy. The washing releases the oils that are a natural part of cotton. Here is a picture showing prepped and unprepped diapers. The unprepped are the ones completely flat.

Right before I tie-dyed, I did a pre-wash to get them damp enough to take the soda ash, a chemical agent that enables the reaction between the dye and the fabric. Make sure you do this in a well-ventilated area!

Pre-dye Prep
I laid out all of my materials so I could mix as I went along. Included in the kit was the soda ash, the urea (the little ball like things) to mix with the dye, the dyes themselves (the three powders - blue, yellow and red), rubberbands, and the synthrapol detergent (this is a final wash to set the dyes).

After the prewash was done, I banded up each and every one of the diapers. Some of them I accordion-folded and then rubberbanded them together, some of them I grabbed bunches and rubberbanded them haphazardly. Some I pulled a cone shape out of the middle and rubberbanded them down like a stick. Some I folded up neatly and banded that together. Then they went into the bucket (outside) of water and soda ash. They soaked there for awhile, and I got ready to dye.

No pictures of the dye mixing process, because a) it’s sort of boring and b) I didn’t want to get any dye on my camera. I followed the directions in the packet - 2 tsp of powdered color to 1 tbsp of urea and (I think) 8oz of warm water.

Also, no pictures of the dye application process. This was messy. I sat on the back porch and dyed every which way. I dyed some with all three colors. I dyed by mixing up colors and making green from blue and yellow. I just barely managed to finish up the three bottles worth of dyes for the diapers (and two organic cotton onesies I got as well). I bagged them up and twisted them shut and put most of the into a box, to sit and cure for 24 hours. I put some in a glass pan covered with saran wrap because I couldn’t find another box and didn’t want to use anymore bags.

24 hours later…
You can see what the dye process looked like. I saturated heavily here, and used the rubberbands as loose guidelines for color. In the first one below, I alternated red and blue based on the bands. The lower, I did the same (but as you can see there are fewer bands).

Now, we rinse! I rinsed with cold under the sink faucet. TONS of dye came out, so the color lightened a little. Then I unbanded them and kept wringing the dye out until it was mostly clear. I did this with all 24 damn diapers. Yoinks, were my hands achy.

After rinsing and before going in for the final wash:

After the wash with the synthrahol and set out on the back porch to dry:

You can tell that the colors are really vibrant - and it’s really hard to predict how much of the dye seeps down and cooks in, or how the folds and bunching of the fabric alters the actual design, such that it is.

Sorry, tried to get a little fancy here:

This one started out really red, as you can tell the right side was closest to the top and direct application of the dye. It fades slowly to the left.

All done!
They’re all dry now!

My personal favorite from the batch (above) is the one on the left with the red center. With that one, I pinched the center, banded it off a couple of inches at a time until it was like a tube. Then I squirted each section with alternating colors.

More:

My favorite one up close:

And the two organic onesies:

The one on the left is the newborn size, which differs from the 6 month size only in the narrowness. Weird.

And now the finished stack, ready for, er, December and the little one to come!