Hubby Hand-Dyed

"NightMist" wrote in message
...
I have used iodized, non-iodized, kosher, sea salt, and pickling salt
and seen no difference between them. Glaubers salt does make a
difference in brightness with the turquoise and turquoise bearing
colors though.
I don't imagine that the salt make a huge difference unless you are
doing dark colors. I have forgotten the salt once or twice. With
light colors it doesn't seem to be a big deal. With dark colours
(BLACK!!) it does make a noticable difference as regards color take
when doing standard vat dyeing.

Hmmm the turquoise came out just wonderful in brightness without salt. So I
think next time we'll try it with salt and see what happens. Haven't gotten
ambitious enough to try black just yet.


I will soak the fabric in the dye solution, stirring frequently for 15
or 20 minutes when dying solids. Then add the soda and stir like the
dickens for an hour or so. I usually prefer dark rich colors. But to
get the more mottled effect, I squinch it up in a narrow container
(quart jars for FQs or half yards, buckets for yardage) when dry, then
pour the dye solution over and then let it sit for an hour or more
without stirring, then I pour the soda solution in and let it sit
overnight. If I had to really cram to get all the fabric in, then I
will often call it a multi day project and let it sit in the dye bath
overnight, then add the soda and let it sit overnight again.

Those wide shallow plastic totes (under the bed totes and such) are
good for limiting the mess when you discover soaking the fabric in the
soda solution, and then going at it with squeeter bottles, spray
bottles, and/or plant misters full of dye solution.

Ok let me get this straight. I'm confused. Do you add the soda before or
after you add the dye? I think how we did it was mixed the urea crystals to
the water and stir until they dissolved then added the dye powder to that
and poured over the fabric. We let it sit for about 10 minutes then poured
off the excess dye and added the soda ash and let that sit for about an
hour. So what did we do wrong? The colors came out great, we just didn't
have it scrunched up enough to mottle really good.

Hugs,
Mika

Now that the weather is warming up, try working outside on a picnic table or
card table covered with a cheap plastic tablecloth. Use water from the hose
to rinse the fabric. Believe me, this saves a lot on cleanup. Wear your
oldest clothes. Use clean 2 liter pop bottles with the tops cut off for
containers- save some of the tops for funnels. Once your fabric is rinsed
good & dry you can overdye it with more colors. For mottled, jam the fabric
tightly scrunched into jars of dye ( use smaller pop bottles). There are
some good books out with different techniques, Quilters Newsletter (I think)
had an article several years ago about dyeing 1/4 yards in babyfood jars and
setting the color somehow in the microwave.
This is a very addictive pastime, soon you will be wanting to buy whole
bolts of PFD fabric. Remember you can use light color fabric you already own
if you don't mind taking a chance with it. WoW fabric is fun, so are white
cotton sweatshirts & T-Shirts & even canvas sneakers.

Been there, went crazy & dyed all kinds of things. Synthetics don't work,
except rayon. You need different dye for wool & silk (animal fibers)
Jane in NE Ohio


"Mika" wrote in message
...
Well we did it. We hand-dyed our first batch of fabric. What fun. It was a
total disaster and we can't wait to do it again. One thing one should
definitely NOT do is dye fabric near things that you don't want to get wet
or get dye on. lol. The very first batch, I got the soda ash mixed up with
the urea so that started off the whole disaster thing. Then rather than
leave the fabric all scrunched up, I had to go pick it up so that the dye
all drained downward and we didn't get the mottled look the way we wanted.
That was the fuchsia. We did turquoise next and I just don't know what we
did wrong with it but we still didn't get the mottling that I wanted. So
we went on to yellow. DH took the fabric and twisted it to see how that
would work. Well, it worked but not with a mottled effect, with a streak
effect. The colors turned out just beautifully bright and vibrant and I
love them. The yellow is a bit brighter, almost neon, than what I like but
I'll use it. All in all, it was fun and a great experience. We are going
to enjoy this. DH is going to clean out the laundry room and set us up a
table in there to use. We have a utility sink in there so it will work
much better than on my cutting table.

Now I have some questions for you HD gurus. What does the salt do? Does it
have to be plain or is iodized ok? We did the low water immersion for
these and didn't use salt. As far as the colors I'm please with the
outcome. Just not with the mottling but I'm sure that will come with
experience. How long do you leave the dye on before you add the soda ash?
Do you just pour it on then drain it or let it set for awhile? I know it
needs to soak in the soda ash for about an hour.

Anyway, we really enjoyed it and will definitely do more. DH asked me last
night when we were going to dye more fabric. He got a kick out of it. I
love that man.

Hugs,
Mika

On Mon, 14 May 2007 13:37:17 -0400, "Mika"
wrote:


"NightMist" wrote in message
...
I have used iodized, non-iodized, kosher, sea salt, and pickling salt
and seen no difference between them. Glaubers salt does make a
difference in brightness with the turquoise and turquoise bearing
colors though.
I don't imagine that the salt make a huge difference unless you are
doing dark colors. I have forgotten the salt once or twice. With
light colors it doesn't seem to be a big deal. With dark colours
(BLACK!!) it does make a noticable difference as regards color take
when doing standard vat dyeing.

Hmmm the turquoise came out just wonderful in brightness without salt. So I
think next time we'll try it with salt and see what happens. Haven't gotten
ambitious enough to try black just yet.

Dying solid black is very fussy.

I don't think the salt makes as much difference with the low water
methods. With the turquoise I see the biggest difference with the
mixes containing turquise when doing standard dying with the full
amount of water.


Ok let me get this straight. I'm confused. Do you add the soda before or
after you add the dye? I think how we did it was mixed the urea crystals to
the water and stir until they dissolved then added the dye powder to that
and poured over the fabric. We let it sit for about 10 minutes then poured
off the excess dye and added the soda ash and let that sit for about an
hour. So what did we do wrong? The colors came out great, we just didn't
have it scrunched up enough to mottle really good.

Depends on what I am doing.

When dying in jars and buckets and such, I add the dye solution, then
the soda solution, and don't use urea at all.

When I am doing something where I am going to dribble, squirt, spray,
or brush the color on, more often than not I will soak the fabric in
the soda solution, wring it out and then apply the dye solution. In
this case sometimes I will add urea to one solution or the other,
sometimes I will mist the fabric with a urea solution after I am done.

You did it just fine for getting a mottled effect.
The thing with motteling is you will surely get it if you spent the
whole soak time stirring madly because you wanted a solid. If you
very carefully don't disturb after pouring on so as to get a really
good mottled effect, you will get a beautiful solid. Murphy at work.

Fortunatly nobody will die if you mess up, nor are you very likely to
blow anything up. Being as I _know_ the goddess has a notable sense
of humor I am _not_ going to say you won't blow anything up!
Playing around and seeing what happens if you do this or that is half
the fun. Sometimes an experiment gives you something brilliant,
sometimes you just make a mess. Making a mess can be quite fun, and I
think dying is more fun than mud pies.
After spending the last two weeks catching the garden up after the
late start because of all the April snow, I have become quite expert
at mud pies.

NightMist

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