E Cubed Arts

Fabric Dyeing weekend, part 1

Lots of fun and mess this weekend. The neighbors thought we were nuts (you shouldn't breathe the dye powder, so we started the day in masks, in the yard - lots of little containers of powders, plastic bottles, and latex gloves do look a mite suspicious).

First up, a traditional T-shirt tie-dye:

Some solid colors for quilting projects:

You can overdye the white/light fabric part of anything that's printed on, and the printed part (the thick ink) isn't affected. So white flannel with black spots from the clearance rack becomes this (and subsequently some outrageous pajama pants, or perhaps a pair of pillowcases):

Procion dyes will dye anything with cellulose (plants) so cotton yarn works just as well as T-shirts:

Some fabric, a la Fibermania:

Be careful you don't get a hole in the finger of your glove:

Kind of looks like we went voting in Iraq. . . . it came off later, after rinsing out some of the fabric that still had the alkali fixative on it. Not necessarily the best way of dealing with it, since the alkali in the fixative essentially removes the top layer of your skin by turning it to soap, but the rinsing needed to be done anyway :) .

And finally, some batik attempts on the stove:

Will post pictures of de-waxed, washed, and dried items later!

posted by EA @ 1:13 PM