Monday, March 22, 2010

A productive weekend

Spring has finally arrived here in North Carolina. That means it's finally time for some fabric dyeing!

Here are my dyeing supplies, all ready to go in my garage.

My dyeing table consists of an outdoor patio table (plastic), with a piece of plywood on top.

These fabrics are being dyed with some procion mx dyes -- I think the colors are soft black and plum.

Definitely plum here:

And here is my "formula" & instruction book, Coloring Your Cloth.

No finished pieces to show you, though, because the batteries in my camera died. I also tried some batik pieces, they're home drying on my clothes rack in the garage because it rained late yesterday and had to get them off my clothesline in a hurry.
I learned that I need to buy larger quantities of white fabric (maybe a bolt) so that I have enough on hand when I feel the urge to dye. I also learned that you can get several different shades of the same color by adding one piece of fabric right away, then adding another about 10 minutes later, and yet another after waiting about 10 more minutes.

2 comments:

  1. Good to know about the timing of fabric for shades. Your "studio" looks a lot like mine. I have talked my husband into a utility sink outside so at least 6 months out of the year I won't be rinsing my dyed fabric in the tub.

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  2. A utility sink would be great--I have to run back & forth into the kitchen. Oh well, the exercise is good for me. I rinsed my fabric out using my outdoor hose and my car-washing bucket, and poured it on my gravel driveway. What was really a mess was boiling out the wax from the batiked fabric, yuck!

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