How to Dye White Plush Felt and Create a Rainbow of Colors

Our White Plush felt dyes very easily to create a wide range of colors. Want to try something new and make your own custom plush collection! Take those colors and make cute stuffies, heirloom and vintage inspired bears, rabbits, Santas and snowmen. Go bright and make dinosaurs, monsters and more. Here’s how!

Rit dye is well known for its quality dyes. Their original dyes are not recommended for polyester fabrics but they will create a soft vintage and pastel palette as illustrated in the photo below. And yes the Dark Brown created a rose shade.

These colors are perfect for making bunnies, chicks and ducks for Spring!

Rit Dye has developed Rit DyeMore product for dyeing synthetics like the 100 per cent polyester plush felt. This Dye is used by many plush artists. It is important to follow the directions exactly and create test swatches. The plush felt needs to be washed before dyeing and after the final finished results can be gently dried in the dryer. The dye is available on the Rit Dye website and on Amazon as well.

Stovetop Method
Due to the complexity of dyeing synthetics, you must use the stovetop method to maintain an almost boiling temperature for the duration of your dyeing (93°C or greater). Accordingly: (1) you cannot dye anything that won’t fit into a pot on your stove and (2) you cannot use your washer because the machine won’t be able to achieve the water temperature needed for Rit DyeMore to penetrate the fabric.

To determine how much dye is needed, weigh the item to be dyed on a food scale or estimate the weight. As a general guideline, one bottle of Rit DyeMore will dye up to 2 pounds/1 kilogram of dry fabric. If dyeing 100% polyester or trying to achieve a very bolder color, double the dye quantity.” Read complete instructions at Rit Dye here.

Rit DyeMore is available in a wide range of fabulous colors! TIP: Make sure to dye enough for a project as each dye lot may have slight variations.

Plush artist Leigh Fansher Bonifield of Leigh’s Stonehouse dyes all of her plush with Rit DyeMore. She offers this tip to offset some of the brown dye purply undertones is to add a little granite. Experimenting and creating color swatches will achieve a reference for future dyeing,

Visit Leigh’s Etsy Shop to see more of her wonderful creations like this Vintage inspired bunny with chick basket. A big thank you to Leigh for sharing her dyeing results and using the White Plush Felt.

It was fun experimenting with the regular Rit dyes already on hand. The most surprising result was the Kelly Green. Initially it looked very green but look what happened.

While experimenting with the regular Rit Dye, as you can see in the dye bath, Kelly Green looks very green but the result is the color of this little duck stuffie below, a pretty Robin’s Egg Blue. Which is now my favorite color!

Regular Rit Dye in Sunshine Yellow resulted in a very soft vintage color for this next little duck.

This little duck stuffie is so easy to make.

YOU WILL NEED:
1/4 yard of Kunin Felt Brand White Plush Felt (available at Hobby Lobby.)
Rit Dye of choice
Fairfield World Poly-fil
2 eye beads 6mm
Scrap of Yellow felt
Adhesives Beacon Fabri-tac, hot glue both work well
4″, 5″ and 7″ Circle Templates
Needle and matching thread, scissors and marker

1. Use templates to lightly draw circles on back of plush. 7″ for body, 5″ for head and one 4″ circle cut in half for wings. Cut out circles just inside drawn lines.

2. Anchor thread and simply sew a running stitch around edge of both circles. TIP: A strong thread like a Quilting thread and larger needle makes it easy to sew and pull the threads.

3. Pull stitches into a shaped circle and stuff. Pull tight and secure threads. Repeat for both head and body. Shape body circle into oval. Fold wing pieces in half and glue shut.

4. Keep thread anchored at bottom of head and stitch through front. Add bead and pull back through to bottom pulling tight. Repeat for second eye.

5. Glue head to body. Add a thin line of glue along wing edges and glue to body. (Try a couple of positions for wings before gluing in place.) Cut a couple of half circles for beak. Adjust size depending on your preference.

Add this cute duck stuffie to a basket for Spring decor. To create larger ducks simply enlarge each circle size in the same increments. We will be sharing more plush designs and ideas every month. Used with our Classic and Premium felt for added accent elements.

You can find an expanded color line of Kunin® Classicfelt and Kunin® Premiumfelt, non-wovens fabrics in cut by the yard at your local Walmart or Walmart.com; please inquire as to what is available in your area. Also widely available at Amazon. In Store and on line at Hobby Lobby, JOANN Fabric and Craft Stores.

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Thanks for stopping by!
Debra