I wanted to have fabrics that tied in with my eco printed pieces, so decided the best way forward was to dye my own. I have dyed fabric before, but not for ages, so read up on all my books beforehand, and left my fabric to soak in soda ash overnight.
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| fabric soaking in soda ash |
Then I had fun and miraculously not ended up multicoloured myself!
I followed a couple of people's ideas on ice dyeing, layering up the previously soaked fabric in the bottom of a bucket, covering with ice cubes, then sprinkling with reactive all in one dye. Repeat the layer, and leave the ice to melt for 24 hours.
This is more experimental than might be useful for the piece of work I have in mind, but you never know, serendipity might call.
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| ice dyeing |
For more useful fabric I tried the plastic bag method, pouring the mixed dye into the plastic bag containing the pre soaked fabric. I'm really please with the appearance so far, but rinsing the fabric might really mute the colours more than I'd like. Time will tell, the proof is in the curing overnight I guess.
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| plastic bag method |
While I was in the zone I quickly dyed a few skeins of thread, to use with my slow hand stitched piece of botanical print work shown in the last post.
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| dyeing skeins of thread |
All rinsed and washed, now a blow on the line, quick iron and then stitch...almost reminds me of black currant and pistachio ice cream!
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| dyed fabrics |
Thanks for reading,
Debbie
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