DIY Ombre Crochet Throw

I’ve been doing a fair bit of internet shopping for homewares recently.  I am dying to start nesting. Andrew tells me ‘we are nesting – we are creating a whole house! But unfortunately construction is not really cutting it with my need to make the house clean and tidy and decorate with soft things.

I found a teal crochet throw somewhere (Adairs or Pillowtalk?) that I loved, but my cheapskate ways couldn’t justify the over $100 price tag for something that really doesn’t do anything other than look pretty.

But then I found this white crochet throw courtesy of someone’s Grandma at our local second hand store for $20 and knew that it needed to come home with me and get a dye job.  I decided to make mine two tone/ ombre colours and am really happy with how it turned out.  Typically, the bowerbird in me picked two shades of blue, but I’m sure you could mix any two as long as they don’t clash to make brown (unless that’s your thing!).

What you need:

Bucket or pot large enough to submerge throw

Boiling water

Two different shades/ coloured dye

Throw

+ Fill the bucket with hot water and mix in dye. (I started with my lighter colour)

+ Submerge 1/4 of the throw, hang the rest over the side and leave to sit. (The dry fabric will start sucking up the water as well). I left mine overnight.

+ Quickly submerge the rest of the throw before draining the water and squeezing it out.

+ Let it sit for 5 minutes before throwing it in the washing machine for a rinse cycle.

+ Hang to dry.

+ You could leave it here or you could do as I did and repeat the process with a darker colour to deepen the ombre effect.

Then all you need to do is finally get your couch out of storage and set up your house so that you have something to decorate with your beautiful new throw.

Oh wait, that’s just me.

What do you think? Do you have an old throw lying around that needs an update?