Dyeing White to Ivory

Jan 22, 2012 by Lindsay

In the nursery we have an ivory bedspread that I love. It’s simple and versatile and I bought it because I figured it could adapt to any changes that we would make to the nursery without having to be replaced every time I re-decorated! When we found out that baby #4 was on the way I decided to wait until we knew what we were having before I did any other decorating in the nursery, so it has been lacking a bedskirt for awhile now! I had played with the idea of making a bedskirt but quickly changed my mind when I found THIS bedskirt on target.com for $10! For some reason it was the king size bedskirt that was on sale but it worked out because I had the twin bed and the crib that needed a skirt so I just cut up the king and made two skirts out of one!  The only problem that I was left with was that it was bright white and I needed it to be ivory. Then I remembered that my mom used to dye lace, fabric and our tights using coffee or tea! I wasn’t sure exactly how she did it but after a little online research I found enough information to figure it out.

Here is the bedskirt before. White and wrinkled.

All you need is some cheap tea and hot water.

If I had been dying something smaller I could have just used a pot but obviously a bedskirt is much larger so I used the bathtub. I ran the water to get it as hot as I could but I also boiled two pots of water to make sure it was really hot. Then I added my tea bags until I got a nice dark color. (I had done a sample the night before with some of the extra fabric, that way I knew how dark I needed my “base” color to be.)

Then I added my skirt and worked it with my hands making sure to saturate every bit of fabric and getting an even color.

Once I got it as dark as I wanted I drained the water and immediately rinsed it with cold water until the water ran clear. Then I washed it with cold water and dried it. After a good starching and ironing this is how it turned out.

I am very happy with the way it turned out. It is obviously not an exact match but it is a nice subtle ivory and it’s no longer bright white! I did find that the soft cotton of the bedspread (the part that you don’t see under the mattress) absorbed a lot more color than the actual skirt part did. Using the tea also caused it to take on more of a brown-ivory color as opposed to the yellow-ivory color of the bedspread, but I’m ok with that. One tutorial I read before attempting my project described it as more of an “antique ivory” and I would say that is very accurate. If you decided to try it make sure to do a sample first so you know how your specific fabric will take to the dye!

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Little Miss Bitty – week 24 & 25

Jan 15, 2012 by Lindsay

I took a belly photo for the last two weeks! Which brings my total number of weekly pictures for this pregnancy to a grand total of 4! I realized that I was doing a poor job of providing updates on this growing babe and all the preparations that are taking place for her arrival later this spring. I wanted to wait until I was FINALLY caught up on last years blogging before I charged into all things baby. I may not talk about her much (yet) but just ask my husband, I have been busy sewing and making lists of things that need to be done before she comes….it’s going to be a busy couple of months!

I go to the doctor tomorrow and then have my glucose test done later this week. Thankfully I have had three diabetes-free pregnancies and I am hoping that we can continue with that trend!

I want to remember a couple of funny things that the boys have said lately about the baby. Whenever I ask Joshua who is in my belly he says “baby sistee.” He adds an “e” sound to the end of most words, so this is just another funny way that he says things.

This week I got ambitious and decided to do some exercising (don’t be impressed, I’ve taken about the last 10 weeks off) and I was just doing some arm weights but had a workout video on at the same time just for the music. Andrew asked me why I wasn’t doing it like they were on the tv and I explained that because I have a baby in my belly I have to do things a little different.

He responded with, “Oh, so when you don’t have a baby in your belly you can do it right, but since you do have a baby in your belly you have to do it all wrong?”

Yes son, I suppose that’s about right!

Anyways, here are sister and I at 24 weeks

And at 25 weeks

Hopeful for a healthy report from the doctor tomorrow!

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December blogging – Christmas Day & more

Jan 13, 2012 by Lindsay

We had a very enjoyable, low key Christmas Day. After the kids got up we opened stockings and gifts from us to the kids. Then we had our traditional Christmas day brunch with the family followed by more gift opening! The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys, relaxing and enjoying our family!

We have entered the phase of children’s toys where it takes three adults and a power tool just to get the toy out of the box!

Since it is now the middle of January I think I need to be done with my “catching up” from December. Since we really didn’t take many more pictures during our time in Ohio I figured they could just get thrown into this post We spent the rest of our time there either shopping, staying at home letting the kids rest or play and going out to eat almost every night.

Zachary got pretty good at standing on his own while we were gone! He has yet to take any steps by himself but his balance is getting better and better.

On New Year’s Eve we took the kids to a little train museum to take a ride on the train and spend some time looking at the model trains they had. The kids loved it, even though it was a very cold train ride!

My sister and I got pretty excited to find some caramel apple suckers at the concession stand as well! These remind us both of summers at church camp and are almost impossible to find! We meant to eat them together that night but forgot about them until later. I enjoyed mine at about 2:30 in the morning on our long drive home, it helped keep me awake for a little while!

Our kids were not great sleepers while we were there, so I was lame and went to bed before midnight. I didn’t want to waste precious sleep just waiting to see the ball drop! We were so thankful for our time in Ohio and for safe travels there and back. We look forward to all that 2012 will bring, especially the addition of our baby girl this spring!

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