Dyeing an Ektorp Slipcover

* This chair was featured on Ikea Hackers (YAY!! Thank you Jules!!) and some of the comments said that RIT dye fades really fast. I've had the chair for six months now and I haven't noticed any fading. I've posted a recent picture at the bottom of this post.

This was a white cover for an Ikea Ektorp chair that I dyed fuchsia. I was so nervous about getting the color right and that the dye would stain my washing machine. BUT....the color turned out exactly the way I hoped and my washing machine didn't permanently stain! 

I used liquid RIT dye that  I purchased at Albertson's grocery store. RIT has a great website with recipes for many custom colors here. My exact color wasn't on their website, so I guessed a bit. I knew the slipcover was about 7lbs (shown on specs on Ikea's website) and so I bought 3 bottles. My mix turned out to be 2 bottles of purple and 1/2 a bottle of cherry red. 1 bottle of RIT is good for 2lbs.of fabric.

 I set the washer to the largest load setting. First I washed the new slipcover then I removed it from the washer. I then filled the washer with hot water, added 1 cup of salt, 2 bottles of purple dye and half a bottle of cherry red. I stirred this with an old broomstick for about 2 minutes before I added the wet cover. Then I manually stirred the cover around in the dye for about 5 minutes before having the washing machine agitate the cover for 30 minutes, then let it drain and rinse and spin.

 I repeated the rinse cycle two more times until the rinse water was mostly clear.


 To wash the washing machine I ran two old white towels through the wash cycle with detergent and 1 cup of bleach.

I did NOT put the cover in the dryer. I prefer to put the damp cover on the chair and let it air dry. That way it will naturally shrink and tighten on the chair. Polyester does not take the dye so below you can see the sections of the cover that remained white.

 The zipper and stitching also remained white.

 

  Here it is, below, after drying.

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                          1 day after dyeing                                                           6 months after dyeing