Wrap Yourself In A Freestyle Waffle (A Waffle Weave Blanket Story)

The Freestyle Find

I found a free waffle-weave cotton blanket as part of a neighborhood clean-out event.  It was an odd sort of pale yellow-green, not cream, not yellow, not white, just enough of a color to make you doubt your eyesight.  Lucky for me there were no holes or rips, just that odd color....

Blanket (bottom) next to a white t-shirt (top),
see what I mean about the weird color?

The blanket had MANY snags (pulled threads) in it, as I imagine is a common hazard of the waffle weave with its raised boxy texture. Naturally my first task was to machine wash and dry the blanket -- and specifically to dry it in the machine on high heat in order to shrink it in case it ever goes in the dryer in future.  Then on to the snags!

Tying and cutting the loose threads was sort of like a little treasure hunt...

Scissor cutting a thread pull

The Restyle

I decided that the key makeover element for this odd color blanket was a dye job, good thing I had randomly acquired a large plastic bin (no lid) that would fit inside the tub and could hold this blanket.  I used RIT brand dye in Dark Green

RIT dye package, dark green

Here is the blanket while taking a dye bath, the color looked quite dark while wet.

Blanket in a tub of RIT Dark Green dye

I also used about half a bottle of the RIT Color Stay Dye Fixative in the fixative bath (after the blanket came out of the dye bath), this is supposed to help the color "stick" to the fabric.  Given the large surface area of this blanket, I should probably have used an entire bottle - but I only had half a bottle left.

Blanket in fixative bath with RIT ColorStay Dye Fixative

 

After the dye bath and the fixative bath the blanket went back into the washing machine for a 'real' wash to remove any unattached dye particles.  

Like a wet blanket

Conclusions

This is a LARGE blanket, and I think if I had wanted a true dark green to match the color on the box I would have needed another packet (or two?) of dye to get a saturated dark green, and probably a hotter dye bath as well.  But, in reality, I LOVE the seafoam green color that it acquired by the end of the process.

Here it is draped over a chair to display the length.

Blanket, post-dye

Blanket, post-dye job

The remaining small snags are still visible, more so when the sunlight hits at an angle while trying to get a good color photo.

Blanket in the sunlight with blue pillow

My phone camera doesn't do justice to the color, but what matters most is that it is still a great soft blanket for couch naps.  Mmmmmmm, couch naps.

Happy freestyling!