I was restoring some mysterious invisible threads on the Mirabilia BB t’other day, and came across a post I wrote regarding hand-dyeing fabrics. I thought I’d replicate the info over here, because I don’t trust ezboard not to lose it again, and besides, Cathy asked about this a while back, and I’ve been meaning to post about it here.
You’ve seen Waiting For Ships stitched on one of my hand-dyes, though it doesn’t photograph especially well. I have some more pics over here of some (most of these are small, ornament sized pieces, good for cheaper experimentation). There are a couple more that I’ve done that I didn’t remember to photograph or scan before sending them off to various new homes, whoops.
Before I started dyeing, I scoured the internet for information. Here are some of the links I find useful:
www.quilt.com/FAQS/FabricDyingFAQ.html
www.pburch.net/dyeing/howtodye.shtml
www.straw.com/sig/procion.html
www.prochemical.com/directions/F_LowWaterImmersion.htm
www.dyeingfabric.com/
www.dharmatrading.com/
Plus a couple of books that I have which are both very useful:
‘Color by Accident’ by Ann Johnston
‘Fabric dyeing for beginners’ by Vimala McClure
Dharma trading is very informative if you dig around the site, and you can purchase your Procion Dyes there too (I’m lucky enough to have a local resource not too far from me here in Melbourne).
If you’re interested in dyeing your own fabric, the best suggestion I can make is: experiment, experiment, experiment. I don’t really have any hard and fast rules I follow, though I’m gradually developing my technique as I practice. Oh, and experiment on cheaper fabric (obviously this depends on your financial situation) . The results you achieve differ between fabrics, but dyeing cheap fabric will get you a pretty good feel for the techniques. Colour wheels are a great way to get a feel for the results of mixing different amounts of dye… not always what you expect! I only bought the primary colours and black, and do my own colour-mixing; you can also buy many pre-mixed dyes if you prefer.
