Tie Dye Baby Clothes: A Daddy’s Point of View

A super cute tie dye baby onesie, fresh off the line!

Tie dye seems to be in at the moment; you see it on the high street even if a little toned down for the masses, but it is everywhere. The offerings on the high street are normally a one colour affair and are quite safe. The buyers for these stores have probably never even worn tie dye before and in all probability aren’t even keen on the amazing crazy colours that come with the tie dye territory; but hey, it was in their brief for the season’s clothing range! But...the one thing you will very rarely see is tie dye baby clothes.

Now here at The Hippy Clothing Co. we love colour and lots of it. And we love proper tie dye clothes. The thing is they’re not that easy to make; it takes time and love with a dash of practice. But as with anything in life, when you put in the time and effort the results can be truly amazing...far too much hassle and way too expensive to make a good margin on the high street.

So small yet so psychedelic!

After having so much fun messing around with dye in my garden in the summer making tie dye t-shirts for our store this year, we stumbled upon a supplier of fair trade and organic baby clothes. Just plain white baby t-shirts and baby grows, so I thought hey, why not give it a go?

The tie dye process was very hard to get right having been used to the generous canvas size you get with xxl t-shirts, in comparison the baby clothes are so tiny! And you say duh yeah! But you forget how small babies are, as my daughter is now ten and nearly as tall as my wife! Dying the baby clothes made me think of the time my daughter was a newborn and how fragile she was as a new life. As I performed the procedure of adding different colours to the clothes I had visions of a surgeon performing a lifesaving operation on a baby and wondering how anyone can do this miracle on such a tiny human being……

It's hard not to fall in love with these minature works of tie dye art

Is it safe to tie dye baby clothes?

The answer is yes, as long as the dye is fixed properly and the item has been washed to remove any excess dye. Babies like to do a lot of sucking and chewing on everything and the item of clothing needs to be tie dyed with a fibre reactive dye like Procion MX. This dye forms a permanent chemical bond with the clothing and does not bleed out and can be washed at a hot temperature. If a general purpose dye like food colour has been used then there is every chance the dye will bleed out when wet.

If you fancy having a go then take a look at my guide on how to tie dye - it’s awfully good fun! Or you can get some from The Hippy Clothing Co., made with love and care by yours truly. They make great baby shower presents and make any little ones look amazing! Love and peace. x