2015 1 Fun Day Dyeing

~ Dyeing Class with Kathy Shaw ~

 

Enjoyed my class time today learning the process of dyeing lace, binding, rattail and cotton cording, and other items.   Enjoyed the learning process and so grateful for Kathy's teaching and organization.   We spent the first few classes in preparation which was so beneficial to not only success but also aided greatly in keeping things clean and free from dyeing accidents.  Thank you Kathy for all your organization of our materials for this class, it helped immensely. 

 

 

 

 

Todays class I am using an acid dye, the brand RIT, and here you see I have prepared 3 quart jars ready for the prepared acid solution.  I found this brand of dye did not dissolve as well as I would have liked and was concerned about the fabrics I was dyeing to be left with specks of dye, so I filtered the dye.  The yellow and red I filtered through a coffee filter, and the blue I filtered through a piece of white muslin fabric, which I later immersed in some dye to later be used in a project.  I then stored the filtered primary colors in the three juice bottles on the right in the photo of all the dye colors.  Those little juice bottles made it so easy to pour the colors into the spoons when measuring the solutions.  I used an empty vinegar bottle for mixing my acid dye solution in for easier pouring when measuring amounts.

 

 

My favorite of the colors were the light tertiary blends we created.  They created the prettiest ribbons and bias tape, as well as painted up nicely on the lace motifs and trims.   You can see I kept the instructions handy for each step of the way.

 

The following two photos are my items I put through the acid  dye baths while they were still wet; I included some identification marks so I could remember which ones the pieces came from.  I really liked 4 D,E,F colors.  Notice the 3C and 3 E created a pink color, instead of red, I think it is because of the poly in both those trims.

And the following photos are my laces, bias tape, cording, rattail, and fabrics all dried and ready for the iron or to use as is.

One thing I struggled with was keeping my rubber gloves clean enough to not stain the pieces with dyes that I didn't want that color on, if you look closely at the bias tap and the silk ribbon a few areas have been over-dyed :)  

My other problem was I ended up with no green colors.   I think the filtering of the dye, although no speckling of fabrics, it did mean less pigment, so my yellow blue combo was more of a blue than green.  

The other thing I noticed on my silk ribbon, I dyed one in the primary blue and one in the filtered blue and they are both different colors; one is a deep blue/purple and the other is a very pretty lavender - the last two ribbons in the second column of my silk ribbon rows.

I was so happy to find the poly lace took the dye (Pink Lace) and the rattail cord also a poly/rayon took the dye as well, not to mention how excited I was to find the bias tapes I can now have in whatever color I can create!  

I am now ready to go on to the next assignment.  And another time I will play with my other powdered dyes.

 



Thank you Kathy, had loads of fun, learned so much, and now have a bounty of pretty colors to use in my next projects.