As part of my current baby carrier obsession, I decided I needed a dyed wrap. I was seeing lots of mama's talk about them in my carrier diy group on Facebook and I loved the way some of them were turning out. So I joined the 'Dyed Baby Carriers' group and snooped around in there during a few breastfeeding sessions and got some ideas and instructions on how to do what I wanted. Following is how I got to that fine dyed wrap you seen my chunky monkey lounging in!
I bought some Osnaburg utility muslin and a tie dye kit at my local Hancock Fabrics. It contained some pre-measured bottles of 3 colors - Blue, Green and Turquoise. I only used the Blue and Turquoise.I then washed and dried my fabric, cut it to the size I needed and serged all the edges the way I like them. I then folded it accordion style to the width of my shoe box bucket I decided to use for dying.
I then hung a tension rod in my shower (you could use the one the curtain hangs on.. I just happened to have another one), put a tv tray table in the tub, set my dye bucket on it and mixed my dye in the bottle. I then poured it into the bucket. I hung my fabric above the bucket and adjusted the rod so that 1/3 of my fabric was laying on the bottom in the dye. I carefully added more water until there was a few inches in the bottom and then wearing rubber gloves I dipped and swooshed and moved the fabric around until it was saturated and laying evenly in the dye solution. 
I let it sit for about 45 minutes in the dye and then spread it over the tension rod and sprayed it out with cold water until the water ran clear. I used straight pins to hold it up on the bar. (Of course I forgot to photo the spray out the first time so yes.. this photo depicts the turquoise spray out.)
After the water was running clear I wrung it out as best I could and put it into a hot rinse cycle and then into the dryer on the hottest setting. Then I repeated the process with the turquoise on the opposite side!
You can see by my finished photo that I did a much better job on the turquoise than the blue. But doesn't everybody do something better the second time?
In the end I loved it.. imperfections and all. It looks so beachy in 'real life'. I actually wish I had left one edge the natural instead of the middle so it appeared to be sand leading to water leading to sky.
Also.. note that I did not follow all the steps a perfectionist dyer might. They scour (boil) their fabric with dish soap and soda ash (washing soda) and add soda ash to the dye. I'm both lazy and impatient and really this was just an experiment so I didn't do all that. If you want to do a dye job 'right' I suggest doing some research before starting. But if you just want to have fun, get to dying!
The End
