Challenges and Daily Discussions > Homemaking Challenge

July 10, 2015 Project: Dying bed sheets

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Alice:
Today's frugal project is to dye some bedsheets. My daughters have some acne medicine that has stripped the color off of the pillowcase of some beautiful aquamarine sheets. I don't think it's the medicine entirely but the cheap dye in the sheets. They look terrible so instead of pitching otherwise good sheets I'm going to try to dye them. They do have a dark pattern in them that is like black circles but the base color (light blue) has faded. I don't want everything I touch or work with turning light blue so I've opted to do this on the stove in a large stock pot. It will be an all evening affair but I hope I get the results I'm searching for. Wish me luck!

Any hints for making this work? I'd love to hear them. I am using salt to "set" the dye. I decided not to use the washing machine since it might stain and I don't want that at all.  I'm just not sure how to drain the dye once I've finished with it. Somehow I have to get it down the drain without staining my Corian countertop/sink combo. I have a utility tub downstairs but that would stain also and the problem of getting the pot down there is a nightmare. 

Alice

Rooney:
I don't know, Alice.  I think with something like that, if I was trying to fix it as cheaply as possible, I would opt to check my local thrift stores for replacement sheets.  If it was a difficult color to match, I would try and match some of the other colors in the set.  I would just be more worried about the dye ruining something (like sinks, countertops, flooring) that would end up costing more to replace. Since they are just the sheets, you could probably get that at a thrift store for 50 cents or so and the dyes probably cost more than that.  You have probably done things like this before though and know how to do it, and I don't. I would most definitely ruin something in the process. :)

greyhoundgirl:
I had to laugh when I read this.  I thought you meant the bed sheets were dying, as in on their last legs, as opposed to dyeing, lol. 

No help here on the dyeing, but could you pour the dye mix down the toilet, flush immediately, then use bleach if needed to clean the toilet?  Or peroxide?

Alice:
Oops! I see that I spelled it wrong in the subject line but they were dying so I dyed them! I have dyed them but in two batches. There was too much to fit in one pan so I put the worst in first and the second batch didn't dye nearly as dark as the first batch but they weren't as bad. I had the hardest time rinsing the blue dye out. I did that outside and dumped the blue water way out in the back woods. I finished rinsing them in my utility tub in the basement. I was careful and where I spilled it was easily cleaned up. I finally put them in the washer and it still bled blue. I washed them twice and decided enough was enough so I put them in a hot dryer. There was no blue stain in the dryer and the lint wasn't even blue. Maybe that means the color finally set. It is definitely not perfect but it is 80% better than what it was.

Mom and Dad came over while I was in the process and mom said to be careful that the sheets don't stain the mattress pad blue--I never even thought about that. She told me to just throw them away and buy new ones! The problem is that I can find good cotton sheets anywhere with good elastic in the fitted sheet. So that's my next request--where can I find good quality cotton sheets, the old vintage kind that don't pill, good elastics and not coarse to sleep in.

Alice

fishermanwife:
Alice, I had that problem too when I was using Proactive. My pillowcase and a too many shirts got ruined so I just quit using it luckily in this stage of life Nutragena is working.

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