We finished our Laundry and Mudroom some months ago now but there has been one area that has been driving me a little crazy. That’s the space underneath the laundry sink. The original plan was to have B help with adding a shelf for storage but over time I realized that I need real storage, not just a shelf to display things so I got the idea of adding a little skirt to hide the clutter and instead of doing something plain I decided to finally try a project I’ve been wanting to for some time. Today I’m excited to share with you by DIY Dip Dye Laundry Room Sink Skirt.
The vintage sink is my favorite part of our laundry area and I really hated to cover any part of it up. In truth, the best part of the sink is the top part so I decided a skirt wouldn’t take away from its beauty.
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Here are the items I used to make my DIY dip dye laundry room sink skirt.
- Natural cotton drop cloth
- Fabric Dye in Teal
- Scissors
- Sewing machine and thread (similar to mine)
- An old metal bucket
- Water
- Iron
- Tension curtain rod
- Curtain Rings with Clips
- About 4 hours of time
Step 1: Measure and measure again
I started by measuring the opening I had to work with. I knew the rod and rings would hang down a bit but I make sure I measured generously to ensure I’d have enough fabric to work with.
Step 2: Cut Fabric to Size
With my measurements ready, I cut out my fabric.
The drop cloth I chose has a natural or creamy-beige color. It’s light but not white. I was fine with this and like the weight of this particular drop cloth. It’s not super heavy but not too thin either. I also like this particulr one because it’s very large (great for multiple projects) and it doesn’t have a seam down the middle like many of them do.
Step 3: Wash and Dry the fabric
Before using fabric dye, you will want to wash your fabric. I chose to wash my fabric after cutting it even though I knew it would fray a bit. Remember, I measured generously so I’d have a large enough fabric without a lot of waist.
Washing this drop cloth fabric, softens it and makes it much easier and more comfortable use us. The fabric, out of the package, is pretty stiff like it has a coating or something on it.
The fabric will mostly likely shrink a bit. Another reason why I measured generously.
Step 4: Prepare your Dye
I used a vintage, enamel pot for my dye. It’s about a gallon so I followed the instructions on the bottle of fabric dye modifying for the amount of water i planned to use. I used hot tap water. I did not boil water for this step.
My fabric pieces were quite small so i didn’t feel i needed to use a larger container. Looking back, I probably should have used a larger container to make the next step a little easier.
Step 5: Dip your Fabric
My goal was to have a sort of organic look with the color getting deeper the farther down the fabric it went. I started by dipping the fabric into the dye as far as I wanted the color to go and then gradually pulled the fabric out so that the farther down the fabric I went, it was soaking in the dye longer.
Step 6: Hang to Dry
Once my fabric was dyed, I hug it outside on our washline to dry. It was a warm, sunny day so it didn’t take super long to do.
Step 7: Iron Fabric and prepare for hemming
With my fabric nice and dry, I next took it inside to iron. I turned my iron to its hottest setting. Next, I started by ironing all the wrinkles out. I then folded all four sides in about 1/4″ ironing my crease flat. I did that step again so my hem was folded over twice totaling about 1/2″ total and made sure everything was ironed as flat and straight as possible.
Step 8: Sew
With all four sides folded and ironed neatly, I used my sewing machine to sew around all four edges where I had folded the fabric over. This is where having a heavy duty / commercial grade sewing machine comes in handy because it was able to sew through all those folded-over layers of fabric if I took my time.
Step 9: Attach your Clamp Rings
With all four edges of my skirt sewn, I next went along the top attaching the little clamp rings as evenly spaces as possible. My sink skirt is about 22″ wide so my rings are spaced a few inches apart from one side to the other.
Step 10: Add the tension rod and lock into place
I left a small gap between the rod and the bottom of the table rail to ensure the curtain / skirt would move freely across the rod. This also allows a little bit of the underside of the pretty vintage sink to show through while hiding all the ugly cleaning products that are stored there.
This was such a fun and easy project and a great way to hide all the not-so-pretty stuff under the sink. This was an inexpensive project that also adds beauty and color to my laundry room area.
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