When I saw the Niark Bugaboo Breezy, my heart skipped a beat! Breezies have always been in rather drab colors…grey, pink, and blue. Booooring. But this Niark is a bright, beautiful teal! Then I saw the price. Womp-womp. That is one pricey canopy. But the teal color is so gorgeous, and my favorite gender-neutral color for my boys! And I love me some breezies in the summertime! While sold by Bugaboo, they do fit on Uppababies (Vista and Cruz) and certain Baby Joggers (City Select, Premier, and Versa) when used with the proper attachments. To use a Bugaboo Breezy (or regular) Canopy on an Uppababy or Baby Jogger, you will need to purchase the Bugaboo Buffalo or Donkey Canopy Clamps and Wires from Amazon or Bugaboo. After that, it simply snaps right on the frame of your stroller! So, back to the task at hand…how to get a gorgeous teal Breezy for a fraction of the price?
I was lucky enough to find an Arctic Grey Breezy in the Amazon Warehouse for nearly 30% off its retail price! Wohoo! This was perfect to try this project, as I hated to waste an expensive canopy if I messed up! Choosing a color was easy…Rit Teal was an excellent match for what I was looking for, and I wasn’t confident in my color-mixing skills to try for anything more involved. From there, I simply followed the instructions on the bottle! I chose to do the basin method of dying rather than the washer method or boil method. I was concerned about too high of heat on the canopy damaging the plastic areas.
DIRECTIONS
First, wash your Breezy in oxiclean and rinse it clean.
Fill a large basin (like this) in your sink up with extremely hot water, one cup vinegar, a squirt of dish soap, and 1-2 bottles Rit Teal Dye (or your color of choice!). I used 2 bottles and actually dyed TWO Breezies in the same basin. Put on some disposable gloves before you move on!!!
Submerge the Breezy (still wet, and with all panels/zippers open).
Now, get ready to stir. And stir, and stir, and stir. Stir for an hour to make sure the dye takes evenly! You will be sweaty, and if you don’t have gloves you will be stained! But it will be worth it!
Drain the water from the basin and rinse it with cold water until the water runs clear (this is very important, or the netting will get streaky!).
I then used a Rit fixative per instructions on the bottle, also in the same basin with hot water. But this may not be required unless you want to wash the canopy frequently without worry.
Wash your Breezy on delicate in cold water on a quick cycle, and hang to dry.
You can see that the zippers did not take the color, but the Bugaboo emblem picked up a small amount. I think it is a gorgeous contrast! Also, the interior of the canopy is more of a vinyl, and it took up more blue in the coloring. Again, I love the contrast! But if you try this at home, be prepared for the possiblity of unexpected outcomes if you are not an experienced dyer! Good luck!
Stroller: Bugaboo Donkey
Liner: Skip Hop Cool Touch Liner
Canopy: Bugaboo Breezy Arctic Grey (dyed teal)
