Easter's Pink Tablecloth and Napkins

I could hear my mother's, my grandmother's, and my great-grandmother's voices in my mind as I dropped the linen napkins and tablecloth into the pink dye bath. "Thank you," they said. "Thank you for using our things and not letting them sit idle in a closet. And thank you for being brave enough to try and change them and make them your own."

Changing something like old linens is not without risk. Colors could streak. Stains could look more pronounced. The dye might take unevenly. It does take some courage to experiment, especially with a much loved item entrusted to me by a previous generation of family. I reminded myself that these family linens would not become any prettier in the dark of a closet. I might never use them in their original white rendition. So it was worth a gamble, I thought. (The post where I talked about plans to dye a white tablecloth and stack of napkins can be found here.)

I will say that I did everything I knew to do to ensure a good outcome. I used liquid dye instead of powder. I added the salt and detergent recommended on the label of the dye bottle. And I allowed the linens to agitate in the dye for the full amount of time. I also rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed the linens. Initially, the pink was more intense than I'd hoped. Rinsing in hot water repeatedly brought the hue down to something closer to what I envisioned.

I'm very pleased with the results. The color took well, uniformly. I would try this again with other linens, should I have a vision in my mind for making an old thing "new." One of the bonuses -- there were a few faint stains on the original tablecloth. Dyeing it seemed to make those stains less noticeable. Of course, YMMV, should you try to dye handed-down linens.