DIY Ombre Swaddle Blanket

diy ombre swaddle blanket

Last week I shared a tutorial to make a star printed swaddle blanket, and today I’m sharing this cute ombre version. I love the idea of making your own swaddle blankets, as they can be pretty expensive to buy and it’s more fun to make something yourself anyway!

(Remember when I made that linus the lamb sock animal? Henry was just a few months old!)
diy ombre swaddle blanket

It was my first time trying an ombre dye and it ended up being a lot easier than I thought. Although, as with any dye project, the set up took some thought and planning.

Instructions after the jump!

Photography and styling by Liz Stanley. Assisted by Maddie Bachelder.

I found easy ombre directions from the Rit Dye site. However, the gauze is so thin and the color I was looking for was so very light that we had to adjust things quite a bit. Here’s what we came up with for ombre dying thin material like this swaddle gauze fabric: ombreswaddleblanket3

1. Fill a bucket with lukewarm water, 1 cup of salt, a squirt of washing detergent, and the box of Rit dye.

2. Fill another bucket with cold water and scoop out about 4 cups of the mixture above into this second bucket. (This essentially makes a very very faint and diluted dye that we’ll use at the end for the top of the blanket. We wanted it to be ever so slightly yellow and there was no other way to achieve that look, even with a short dip time since the fabric is so thin).

3. Wet the fabric in water and then dip the bottom 1/4 of the fabric into the first bucket, swaying the fabric back and forth in the bucket for 30 seconds (the swaying is how you avoid that harsh line).

3. Dip it in 1/4 deeper now and sway back and for for 15 seconds. Dip it in again for 5 seconds leaving only 1/4 of the fabric out of the bucket now.

4. Now pull all the fabric out and ring it out starting at the top down (as pictured above).

5. Dip the entire blanket in the second cooler and more diluted tub for just a second. Really, that’s it. ombreswaddleblanket4

6. Rinse out the whole blanket in cool water holding the lighter end up and bringing the dye down.

7. Rinse now in warm water until the color runs clear.

8. Ring it dry and then throw in the dryer.

Comments

With cotton Muslin it is very important to get the water to 150 degrees and don’t short the time required or adding the salt on the directions! The muslin fabric takes the dye extremely well so less dye is better. This is a great way to repurpose old swaddles that might have stains!!

http://www.lunalullaby.com

Luna also has solid white cotton muslin swaddles, 48″x48″, that are great for dying!!

I love this idea! I know that sometimes the colors can run, any suggestions for making sure they really set? My son likes to put the gauze blankets in his mouth…

This is so amazing! I love how soft, comfortable and subtle it is with the yellow.

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I’d love to make up a bunch of these and keep them on hand for baby shower gift baskets (I work at a school and it seems there are at least 2 pregnancies a year! The staff… not the students…thank goodness!). But, I have 2 questions, what exactly is bunting gauze? What would it be called at the fabric store? And, how large of a piece would I use for each blanket?

Looking forward to trying this out (and then prepping a bunch of other baby items like hats and onesies so I can toss a basket together in no time 🙂 )!

Hi! The gauze fabric, I wish I could give you more specifics. I went to a fabric store, asked for ‘gauze’ and they led me to a section of gauze in different colors and styles. It should be pretty self explanatory I hope for your fabric store as well!

Thanks! I was hoping it would be as simple as that and not some gauze made out of fibers that had been soaked in the urine of Nepalese sheep and bleached in the sun on Fiji then woven by virgins in Croatia before being shipped on the back of a thousand seagulls to my local fabric store. Sometimes, simple is nice 🙂

And, I just started back to school this week and there are four (!) pregnant ladies, and one of them is expecting twins, so now I am really, really glad I came across your fabulous idea and tutorial! Hitting the store for some mega-yardage of gauze this weekend!

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