{"id":2104,"date":"2023-01-04T20:18:46","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T04:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2023-01-16T14:00:28","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T22:00:28","slug":"how-to-dye-wool-and-wool-blend-felt-with-kool-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/how-to-dye-wool-and-wool-blend-felt-with-kool-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Dye Wool (and Wool-blend) Felt with Kool-Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Purples in general, are some of my favorite colors and the color orchid is really lovely. I would like to show you how to dye some wool blend felt with Kool-Aid today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to be the first to admit that it\u2019s a little embarrassing to go through the check out stand with the amount Kool-Aid that I buy these days. I really just want to tell the checker, \u201cIt\u2019s not for drinking, I promise!\u201d But Kool-Aid makes a surprisingly fantastic dye for protein fibers, like wool and silk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the great things about Kool-Aid is that it\u2019s \u201cfood-safe\u201d. By that I mean that you can use the same pots for dyeing with Kool-Aid that you cook in. Some people will say that you shouldn\u2019t because of what might be in the wool, but you\u2019re washing the wool quite thoroughly and I think it\u2019s okay. Personally, I\u2019m more afraid of what\u2019s in the Kool-Aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And contrary to popular belief, the colors you can get do not have to be limited to bright, garish candy colors. Dye Your Yarn is a website devoted to dyeing with food dyes- including Kool-Aid<\/a>. They even have a page with a bunch of color mixing formulas using Kool-Aid<\/a>. Today, we\u2019re going to use one of these formulas to create a lovely orchid color. {Please note that the Dye Your Yarn website has since gone away. I\u2019ve inserted links to the pages with the WayBack machine. I hope they will stay up!! Here\u2019s the WayBack Machine link<\/a>}<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s What You Need:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

2 9\u00d712 sheets of wool blend felt<\/a>
vinegar
2 big pots for soaking and dyeing
1 packet Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool-Aid
1 packet Grape Kool-Aid
Large metal spoon or tongs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, purchase your wool felt. I’m using wool blend felt for this tutorial because it’s easier to get. You should be able to walk into your local fabric store and get some. It’s also cheaper than 100% wool, though that’s what I prefer. If you do use 100% wool, the process is the same, but the results may be deeper or sometimes more splotchy depending on the wool.
Synthetic felt generally comes in 9\u00d712 sheets, so that is what I generally use as my base size for dyeing. Wool does shrink though, so you will get smaller sheets.
Purchase at least 12 inches of wool felt. You can totally get more and dye all sorts of colors too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cut your wool into 9\u00d712 sheets and then wash it. Set your washer on cold\/cold and put the wool in after it\u2019s filled. Add just a quick squeeze of dishsoap. I find Dawn to be the best, but you can use pretty much any dishsoap. Let the washer go through it\u2019s cycle. Let the wool air dry or go right on to the next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok, now we get to the fun part!!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before the fabric is dyed, it needs to be thoroughly wet. To do this, put it in a pot full of warm or lukewarm water. Make sure the wool is submerged. Add a splash of vinegar and mix it all around. When I have a lot of wool, I\u2019ll put a plate in the pot that just fits, keeping everything under the water. Another tip is to squeeze the wool gently to make sure water gets all the way inside. You can tell the spots that aren\u2019t thoroughly wet because they will still look dry when the surrounding areas are wet.
There\u2019s not a specific amount of time that the wool needs to be soaked.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Get your dyeing pot a-boiling. We\u2019re just going to dye 2 sheets here today, so you\u2019ll only need a pot like this to be about half full. You want just enough room for the wool to move around. The water actually does not need to be boiling, just really close. In fact, when the water does boil, it needs to be shut off.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Now make your dye. Basically, 1 packet of dye equals 1 sheet of wool felt. This dye recipe calls for 2 packets of Kool-Aid, so we\u2019ll be dyeing 2 sheets of wool felt.
In a glass jar, mix 1 packet of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool-Aid, 1 packet of Grape Kool-Aid and about 1\/4 c vinegar. I like to use vinegar with Kool-Aid because I feel it dissolves a lot better. You could actually use hot water too because the Kool-Aid packets have enough acid in them already.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Stir well until all the granules are dissolved.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Pour the dye mixture into your very hot pot of water and give it a good stir. When the water is almost boiling, turn the heat off.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Now it\u2019s time to add the felt. You can wring the felt out a little bit, but mostly, you just want to put it gently into the dye pot. Stir it all around to make sure that the dye will get into all the folds of the fabric.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And let it sit. Come back every now and then to stir some more for a more even dye job, but that\u2019s it for a while. Let it sit until the water is cool enough to touch. You can let it sit even longer though if you want.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When it\u2019s cool, dump the dye pot into the sink and let the water drain.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Rinse the wool with water the same temperature as the water you just dumped out. Warm or lukewarm water is good. Rinse it until it runs clear.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Now wring gently (the more agitation it gets, the more it could felt and shrink) and let it hang dry.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once it\u2019s dry you\u2019ll be able to see it\u2019s true color! Give it a good ironing and then it\u2019s ready for crafting!!<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Now try some other Kool-Aid color combinations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Don't<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"How<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This post was published on Muse of the Morning.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Purples in general, are some of my favorite colors and the color orchid is really lovely. I would like to show you how to dye some wool blend felt with Kool-Aid today. I\u2019m going to be the first to admit that it\u2019s a little embarrassing to go through the check out stand with the amount […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[42],"class_list":{"0":"post-2104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-lessons-on-felt-embroidery","8":"tag-working-with-felt","10":"post-with-thumbnail","11":"post-with-thumbnail-large"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museofthemorning.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}