Can someone have too much fun tie-dyeing? Apparently, the only limitation is how much dye one has and how much fiber is available. In my case, there was a lot of dye left over from the spinning guild program, so that was not a problem. And I had a few white cotton tees to sacrifice. But that was not enough.
Many (many!) years ago, I purchased several yards of muslin to experiment with, using natural dyes. Only two samples ended up in a dye pot. I took the extra undyed samples to the guild meeting, but no one took me up on dyeing them. Oh, well! More for me to use.
The booklet that came with the kit offered a variety of designs to try, and I tried almost all of them.
These two shirts represent "crumple dyeing". The garment is crumpled up, then the dye applied as squiggles or speckles. I don't usually wear yellow, but the lemon one actually looks good on me.
Sunbursts are a classic tie-dye design. I made several.
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| Rainbow sunburst |
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| Large sunburst |
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| Small sunburst |
Swirls are also a tie-dye classic. This is my attempt at a swirl.
Pleats are relatively simple to do. This one is an example of "random pleats". Could be better.
The booklet showed a tee with pleats across the chest. I took it one step further by pleating in (sorta) stripes.
The folded designs are the most dramatic. This is my attempt at a "flag fold" folded design. (Don't tell the others, but this one is my favorite.)
The following two shirts are supposed to be examples of Shibori designs. I wrapped the tees around pool noodles, neglected to secure them with rubber bands, and dribbled dye on them, aiming for a diagonal pattern. I think they could be better.
At the guild meeting, white cotton towels laid on top of the plastic table cover sopped up the extra dye, plus hand towels and washcloths were available for wiping (gloved) hands. At home, I soaked all the terry in the leftover yellow dye, then dumped the items plus the dye into a bucket of soda ash. I would hesitate to offer these to a house guest, but I'm happy to use them.
I purchased a couple of skeins of Peaches & Creme Original cotton yarn (from Walmart, since our local Joann store is no more *sob*) to dye with. I skeined them around two dining room chairs, then after dyeing them, reskeined them on a niddy noddy, just to mix things up.
One skein was 'White' and one was 'Natural'. I labeled them at some point, then mixed up the labels, but it doesn't seem to matter to the dye as long as there were no blank areas.
Just because a label says the garment is 100% cotton, that doesn't mean that the stitching is cotton. I'm guessing in this case the thread was polyester, but I have to admit that I like the contrast.
I relied primarily on the booklet that came with the kit, but the local library has a plethora of books on dyeing fabric. That topic is a whole new rabbit hole to fall down. The books I referenced:
After dyeing, the not-so-much-fun starts: rinsing (and rinsing and rinsing) to get rid of the soda ash and extra dye, then washing in Synthrapol or a similar detergent, then drying them. The recommendation is to continue to launder the tie-dyed fabric separately for a time or two, just to be safe.
I'm obviously going to wear the shirts, but what to do with all those 36" x 45" muslin pieces? By themselves, they are a bit small for lap robes, but maybe crib quilts? I am open to suggestions.
