Monday 16 February 2009

Dylon Dyes 3

With all of the lovely colours to choose from I had a bit of difficulty deciding which one I would use first. In the end I chose Goldfish Orange. Why? Well, orange is the colour of creativity. I like orange, it's bold.
I followed the directions on the pack. First of all weigh the dry fabric. Don't guess this. In my experience most people underestimate the weight which results in paler colours than you expected. Each packet will dye 250grams of cotton, linen or viscose to the full colour shade. I dyed one x fat quarter of Quilters Muslin, 1 x 10inch square of 3 different Silks, 1 x skein of Cotton Boucle Thread, 1 x skein of Rayon Thread and 1 x skein of Silk Thread. This came to 220grams.


Next step is to dissolve the dye in 500ml of warm water. Define warm? I decided here that most home dyers wouldn't have a suitable thermometer. I used half boiling water and half cold water straight from the tap. The dye dissolves immediately, no lumping.



I did my dyeing in a large bucket. I filled this with enough warm water to fully submerge my fabric.







Dissolved the salt in the warm water.








Add the dissolved dye to this and stir well.









Add you fabric and keep fabric moving for the first 15mins. This will ensure even dyeing. As you are moving the fabric you start to notice the colour. Don't panic if its appears brighter, stronger than you expected. Colour looks different on dry fabric.








For the next 45 mins stir fabric regularly. I did it every 2 - 5 mins. After the 45 mins you need to rinse the fabric in cold water before washing in warm water. Photos of the dried fabric next time.

1 comment:

Hot Fudge said...

It looks absolutely delicious, Trish. Can't wait to see the final result.