Do you ever have a project you have been meaning to get around to, but can never find the time? I felt that way about these throw pillows. I had been meaning to make a pair of pillows for my sofa since I moved into my apartment last summer, but there never seemed to be time to get it done.  Plus the thought of dying indoors was a little intimidating to me. I even had all of the supplies waiting and ready to go, but for a long time it was just an idea. Well I was finally feeling inspired to try a dye technique I have been wanting to do for a while now, and now my living room is so much happier. Ice-dying is a really cool way to let powdered dye drip and melt into awesome faded designs, AND it is the perfect DIY dye to do indoors.

To get started on making these you will need two plain white pillow covers and two pillow forms slightly larger than the covers. I also got a bottle of grey/blue powdered Tulip dye, but you can get any color you want. (I just bought regular tie-dye in powdered form for Michael’s to make this easier on myself. If you want to do it “properly” there are specific types of dye that work best…although I think mine turned out great.) In addition to those items you will also need a basin/bucket/mess sink, a lot of ice or snow and some cookie racks.

Start by placing cookie racks over a large basin/bucket/mess sink.

Then scrunch up the fabric you are going to dye randomly and place it on the rack making sure none of the fabric is hanging over the edges of your basin/bucket/mess sink. Add enough ice to thoroughly cover the fabric on top.

Then gently sprinkle the dye over the ice. The more powder you use the darker the color will end up being as the powder mixes with the melting ice. This dye was a blue/grey color but because I didn’t mix the powder in the bottle when I first sprinkled it you could see a larger variety of colors that mixed together as the ice melted.

After letting the ice drip overnight there were still a few spots of pink and yellow that add something extra to the design of the pillows. Rinse them out well until the water runs clear and then wash and dry the covers.

Once the covers were clean and dry all I had to do was stuff the pillow forms inside and my new pair of pillows was all done! It was so dang easy I only had to wonder why I hadn’t gotten around to making these earlier!

I guess the moral of today’s DIY  is to not be intimidated by a project you have been putting off. Take the time to give something new a try. Make something beautiful and if you fail…retail therapy?