craft project number 1 - part 1 - burp cloths

thinking to myself that i would save money by replicating something adorable i found on etsy.com, i decided i was going to set out to create my own colorful burp cloths.  it took me weeks, but i ordered all of the supplies and got everything assembled for the craft extravaganza.

i ordered burp cloths (gerber old fashioned cloth diapers) back in april, just knowing i was going to end up working on this task.  i set out then to try and find a selection of colorful dyes, but was unsuccessful at locating these at a local store and ended up having to order these off the internet.  while i waited for that i selected some fabrics for the insets, and even ordered some bias tape to help me finish off the edges.  after a follow up trip to michael's craft store, and the dollar store, i thought i had all of my parts assembled and set out to begin the process yesterday evening.

i got all of my things together and re-read the instructions and found that the dye package was calling for 1 cup of salt.  with 5 colors being prepared here, there was no way i had enough salt on hand, and as a matter of fact  -  i had no salt at all, besides Himalayan sea salt.  blah.  back to the store i went.

after returning home will helped me by filling up all of the buckets and creating an assembly line with buckets full of colorful water, wooden stir sticks for the 30 minutes of agitation each dye bucket needed, black contractor bags to ensure the grass did not end up looking like a rainbow, and 6 pairs of rubber gloves.  i had washed all of the items prior to dunking in the color buckets so they would be free of any color blocking chemicals and would be wet to accept the dye.  i lugged them all outside in yet another black contractor bag and started counting them out and submerging the cloth in the buckets.  it was hot, i was sweating, but i kept with it and in half an hour i had a rainbow of colorful cloths and shirts.

this is where the fun began.  it seems that i forgot that our exterior hose bibs need to be replaced, which left me with no way to rinse the dye from the fabrics once i was outside.  my next bright idea was to put everything back into the contractor bags and carry them all (very carefully) through the house and into the master bathroom shower.  here - i proceeded to rinse fabrics for over an hour.  the directions that say rinse until the water runs clear must be some cruel joke, because no matter what i did, this was not going to happen.  after coming to this realization i then put the fabrics back into their respective bags and carried them to the washer.  starting with the lightest color to the darkest color i washed each of five batches between 9pm and 2am.

holy cannoli!  so much work and this project is not yet complete!  however, i had to share where we stand at this point.  stay tuned for project number 1 - part 2 - burp cloths.