Welcome to WAYWO, and please share whatever it is that you are working on. Something knitted, crocheted, woven or tatted? Something painted, watercolored, printed or matted? A writing in progress? A ruffled and smocked dress?
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I want to share some photos of how I use low-immersion dying techniques. My passion is dyeing silk and cotton, scarves to sell and fabric to cut into quilt pieces. I usually dye the silk pieces with another kind of instant dye, so I will show some recent work with cotton. My inspiration and "how-to" guide is the book Color By Accident by Ann Johnston. It is very clearly written, has lots of "recipes" for making different color blends, and emphasized safety, which is important with powdered dyes and other chemicals.
I like low-immersion dyeing because it uses much less water and salt.supplies The colors may be uneven, but that is part of the "homemade" quality I like, and the equipment is simple, kitchen stuff. I use Procion MX dyes, which are powdered. To mix them, I put two tablespoons of urea(crystals) in a pint jar, add one cup hot water, and stir until the urea is dissolved. I let it cool to room temperature and then add about two tablespoons of dye powder. The dye will be good for several days in this mix. dyesSeparately I mix a gallon of soda ash powder - one gallon of hot tap water with about 9 tablespoons of soda ash. All powders must be mixed carefully, with a mask to avoid inhaling the powders.
Now, I prepare the fabric. Do I want to make designs? I can use some plexiglass shapes on either side of the fabric, or folded fabric, and clamp with c-clamps. I can fold loosely and secure with rubber bands or string, or just bunch up the fabric to allow uneven distribution of color. Fabric Prep I soak the fabric in cold water, squeeze out, they spread out in a plastic dishpan. I pour one cup of cold water on the fabric. Then I add one cup of a mix of dye and cold water(depending how deep you want the color.) dye bath
I leave the fabric in the dye for 15 minutes or so, then pour in one cup of soda ash mixture. After that, the fabric needs to sit a minimum of one hour - to overnight, if you like. Rinse in cold water until the water is clear, wash with some detergent(I use Synthrapol, and if the piece is large or several pieces, I run it through a quick wash in the machine.) Then let the piece dry and see what you have: "> "> Some of these bandanas I made recently were a little pale, so I painted on top of a few with stencils: ">