To Dye or Not?

Well I’m guessing you figured out that I went ahead and decided to dye my Ikea Poang Chairs. After a year of Kindergarten students using them, the white was no longer white…just a very ugly stained mess that no washing machine could ever clean! When pricing fabric to cover 12 chairs, the cost was over 300 DOLLARS!! So, I settled with a bottle of $2.99 Rit Dye instead. :)

Here is my step by step process. 

(The Rit Dye website has directions to follow too, check them out here.) 

You will need:

1.    First, I washed the chair covers on the cold cycle. (My washing machine fit 4 at a time.)

2.   I decided to dye the covers in a plastic bin outside. I set this up while the chair covers were in the washing machine. I used a bottle of the Royal Blue Rit Dye. Then, I filled the bin with 4 buckets of hot water from my kitchen sink. 

3.   The website says that you may want to add salt, so I did. To do this I put 2 cups of warm water in a bowl. Then dumped in 1 cup of salt. I stirred this until the salt had dissolved. 

4.   Next, I added my bowl of salt water to the plastic bin of water and dye. I was sure to stir this all together really well. 

5.   When my dye station was all set up, my washing machine had completed the cycle. I took out the chair covers and put each one into the bin of dye (one at a time). I mixed the cover around for about 1-2 minutes. (The website directions say to keep the item in the dye for 10-30 minutes, but I was worried they would shrink, so I opted for just a couple of minutes instead.) When the chair cover was in the water, I continually stirred and moved it around to help evenly distribute the dye. (I used the end of a broom to stir.) 

6.   After a couple minutes, I squeezed out the water/dye mixture and hung the chair cover on my clothesline. Then, I moved on to the next cover. 

7.   I let the covers air dry on the clothesline for an hour or so.

8.   After this, I brought the covers into my laundry room sink and rinsed them with water. I started with hot water then changed to warm and cold. I rang out as much water as I could. All of the chair covers then went back into the washing machine. 

9.   This time, I selected the Warm/Cold Washing Cycle. (Again I did not want to use the Hot Cycle for shrinking purposes)  

10. When the washing machine was done, I air dried the covers on my clothesline. 

11.   Finally, when they were dry, I was done! (Well at least the first 4 were done…I still had 8 more chair covers to go..)

Final Thoughts: I will tell you that the covers do still shrink a little bit, mostly in the length. I was still able to get the cover onto the chair and I’m hoping the length will stretch back out as the children sit in the chairs. Overall, I am very happy with the end result! The chair covers look so new and clean! I can’t wait for my students to see these bright blue chairs!

Happy dyeing!