Name: Amanda
Message: First off, I have never dyed ANYTHING other than 100% wool items (longies) using koolaid. However, I would like to try something new, particularly cloth diapers. They are made of nine layers of bamboo velour. Someone forwarded me a picture of the diapers dyed, and I noticed that the tag is still white. How do I do this? Is this low water immersion dying? Do you think perhaps the dye was applied by hand, using a dropper of some sort, and avoiding the tag? Or is there something you can cover the tag with to keep it from taking the dye? I will include a picture of the already dyed diapers, and perhaps you can offer some advice on how I could achieve this effect. I would really appreciate it. I would just practice and learn by trial and error, except these diapers are very expensive and I don't want to ruin them! LOL.

I recommend that you buy some Procion MX dyes for your bamboo. Bamboo, like cotton, dyes well with cool water fiber reactive dyes. Procion MX are the most popular of the fiber reactive dyes, and they are even the least expensive, if you mail-order them from a company such as Colorado Wholesale Dyes, PRO Chemical & Dye, or Dharma Trading Company. (See Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World for contact information.) They have the lowest reaction temperature of all of the fiber reactive dyes, so they can be used at room temperatures as low as 70°F. You will also need soda ash, to fix the dye. Urea, salt, and sodium alginate are optional, depending on the technique you choose.

The tags in the picture you sent did not dye because they are made of polyester. Polyester does not take fiber reactive dye, so it stays white. The same is true, in general, of stitching. Most cotton garments are sewn together with polyester thread. Some "PFD" (Prepared For Dyeing) garments are sewn with cotton thread for better dyeing. The diapers in the picture you sent each appear to have been sewn with a single color of thread, which implies that they were not dyed with the fabric. For example, in the leftmost example, the thread on even the green sections of fabric is quite purple. These covers must have been sewn from pre-dyed fabric, or else sewn with colored polyester thread before dyeing. Otherwise, there would be more variation in the color of the thread from differently-colored sections of one diaper cover. I cannot be quite sure of this, but you can tell by closely inspecting the covers to see if the thread is exactly the same color throughout. Rayon dyes very brightly with the same dyes as cotton and bamboo (most bamboo fabric, in fact, is made from bamboo-derived rayon), so if clothing labels are made from rayon, they will dye the same colors as the garments.

I believe that the snaps in the picture were not dyed at the same time as the diaper covers. Instead, I think that they were painted to match before they were applied. It is possible to dye nylon snaps, but you don't want to try to dye acrylic snap covers, and most other plastics cannot be dyed at all.

The fabric does look as though it were dyed by low water immersion dyeing. This is my favorite was to dye anything, because it is even easier than tie-dyeing, and the results are more beautiful and more subtle. I would recommend that you try dyeing just one diaper cover, using low water immersion, to see how well it works. I predict that the results will be very nice, but you will want to be sure before you invest a lot of them into this project.

If you have not already done so, check out the blank baby clothes at Dharma Trading Company, They don't sell diapers or diaper covers, but they do sell almost every other sort of baby clothing, usually sewn with cotton thread for better dyeing. The quality is sometimes excellent and sometimes not as good, but the prices are very reasonable and the styles very cute.