DIY Dip Dye pillows

As I mentioned before, I love Canadian House and Home’s Online TV segments.  When I came across this DIY for tie-dye pillows, I knew I just had to try it.  Watch it here if you are interested in seeing the great Michael Penney at work!  I decided to write out my own instructions for you because Michael and Stephanie definitely make it look easier than it was! It could be due to the fact that I have never dyed anything though.  Maybe you can all try and tell me what you think.  And keep reading to the end to see my tips.

Materials (for one pillow case):
- Cushion cover – I just bought some beige Ritva cushion covers from Ikea for $8.99 (note: in the video, Michael says they bought Felicia covers from Ikea, but he made a mistake – there is no such thing as a beige Felicia cover – believe me, it took 2 trips to Ikea to figure this out!)
- Rit Dye – any colour will do! I bought a dark navy colour – around $3.99
- 2 elastic bands
- Plastic bowl
- Gloves – not pictured here because I didn’t wear them - silly me! But I would definitely suggest protecting your hands with something.  Halfway through the project, I began putting plastic bags on my hands to act as a glove.  This is a messy project!
Instructions:

1. Fold your cushion cover like an accordion with a 2 inch fold (note: Michael said to wet the cover before starting – I completely missed this step…oops!)

2. While your cushion cover is still in its accordion shape, tie an elastic band a third of a way and do the same on the other side so the three sections are evenly spaced.

3.  Okay, now it gets tough – dip the one side of the cushion cover into the dye up to the elastic band.  Be careful not to get it past the band and make sure the entire side is submerged in the dye

4. An even tougher step! Without letting the middle part touch the dye, dip the other end in the dye.  I held the middle part up with one hand and dipped the other end with my other hand – hard to capture when you’re trying to take a picture!

5. Rinse!! This is another difficult step because you don’t want any of the dye to splash up on the middle part of the cover. Rinse until you see clear water in the drain (note: This step took a long time!  I’m talking 15 minutes with the water running! I ended up packing it in early even though I could still see blue in the water because I don’t think it can really ever run clear…unless you spend an hour at the sink!)

6. Lay to dry – notice two things: 1.  I decided to make some green pillows as well – I just dipped the whole pillow into the dye and 2. I used my son’s firetruck to hold down the garbage bags – it was a windy day!
7. Ta-da!!
 A Few Things to Note:
- Notice the difference in colour between the two dip dye pillows and the two green pillows? 
- The darker one I dyed first and the lighter one I dyed second
- The Rit Dye box says that one package will dye 3 yards of fabric, which is clearly enough for two pillows
- Not the case, however – I am going to re-do the lighter dip dye pillow with its own box of dye so that they are more similar.  Plus, I like the look of the darker one – it’s more spikey!
- Thus, if you are attempting to try this project, I would suggest buying one box of dye per cushion cover

I really love how they turned out, despite the varying colour.  I even got an order from my sister to make some for her new place! She is currently figuring out what colours she wants!

What do you guys think? Is this a project you would try.

Update: Just as I finished writing this post, Apartment Therapy wrote about tie dye and dip dye pillows.  Great minds think alike eh? Here is West Elm's version.  Pretty close to mine right?

Via Apartment Therapy