(Sorta) Lazy DIY - I made hand-dyed napkins!
Ok here’s the thing…I’m unemployed at the moment and SUUUUUUPER bored. It’s not that I don’t have things to keep me busy. I do. It’s just that not a lot of that busying stuff is particularly satisfying to me right now. So, Crafts. I was looking at some stuff on Etsy and thought there were some really fun ideas. Handmade table linens and such. So I figured I’d knock off, I mean, make my own version. I went down to Michael Levine, the great cheap fabric store in DTLA. The staff there can go either way but yesterday I lucked out and got a good one. He helped me pick out my fabric (linen) and gave me some dying tips you wouldn’t necessarily find on the box of dye. So I bought my fabric and some dye and was ready to roll.
It’s not a craft for the super lazy. Dying stuff takes some time. Also, you have to make sure you don’t ruin anything in your house. Clean up is a bit laborious too. You need to have a few buckets and, preferably, a washer/dryer. You also have to be sure and not ruin said washer/dryer when it doesn’t actually belong to you (renter). It helps to have some outdoor space. But the finished product came out pretty great.
When you go on the interweb and google “hand dying techniques”, you find all the info you’d ever need. I went for the accordian style, which is basically fold the fabric like and accordian (mine was a 12” square. I just left the edges unfinished because, hello, lazy) and then rubber band it a bunch of times so it makes stripes. Mix the dye (I used liquid) with hot water and a pinch of powdered detergent and some white vinegar. You can read the package and figure it out too. I probably should have tested a few different techniques and time in dye but, as I’ve frequently mentioned, lazy. I went for it. Dyed them for about 15 minutes, rinsed well, rinsed in vinegar and then machine-washed on warm. Put them in the dryer and TAH DAH Napkins. My only regret is that I didn’t dye them longer. The bottle says to leave in dye for 30 minutes and that they will look darker when wet but they looked really dark at 15 so I took them out. Still, I like them. Not a bad way to kill an afternoon.
