Musings on quilting, sewing, fabric and dyeing by Janet Smith ( www.textileart.com )

Here’s an example of dyeing a very simple color wheel. I soaked fabric in soda ash solution and let it air dry (do not use your clothes dryer).  After the fabric was dry, I cut/ripped approximately 3″ square pieces and painted dye on the pieces using a ½” flat brush.  I used two parts water to one part dye stock so the examples wouldn’t be too dark.  You do not need much dye - see table below for dye stock and water amounts.
 
Dyes used in this example are ‘primaries’: Turquoise, Fuchsia and Lemon.  I am not a big fan of Turquoise (to get a good yield, you need to use Glauber’s salt instead of regular salt).  And, as the example shows, the Turquoise needs help.
 
The purpose here is to show how different dyes ‘hold up’ against each other.  Yellow is generally weak against Blue and Red.  To get a good Green or Orange, you may want to use twice as much Yellow.  Depending on the particular Red or Blue, they may be about equal - or not.  In these tests, the Turquoise really wimped out and the Fuchsia is quite strong against the Lemon.
 
Now, the fun begins!  Experimenting with different colors and seeing how they look when mixed.  What if all 3 are mixed together?  Mud?  Or, just the color you needed?  Try it!

Posted under Dye Class

These aren’t the greatest images, but you will get the idea. The Pro Chemical method (add dye then activator - little agitation) is on the left. My method (add dye and soda ash together - smoosh) is on the right.

Different results from different methods. Why? It’s the timing of adding the soda ash/activator. The Pro Chemical method is letting the fibers react with the dye for a while before ’setting’. My method throws everything at the fibers at once.

[This is one of the reasons I do not use premixed colors. I mix my own from pure dyes. With the exception of Chinese Red (Dharma)/Strongest Red (Pro Chemical) which is supposed to be a standard mix. I say supposedly, because it is not always the case.]

So which is THE CORRECT METHOD ? ? ? Either one. If you browse books on dyeing, you will see many methods of dyeing. It depends on the results you want. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s their way or the highway.

[I go through, what some would call unnecessary, extra steps when doing appliqué. Too bad. I am not forcing you to do it my way.]

Buy a lot of inexpensive muslin. Experiment. Keep a notebook of your tests and methods. Re-dye the ‘uglies’. HAVE FUN!

Posted under Dye Class

I am using the inexpensive muslin from JoAnn Fabrics. The colors from the Pro Chemical kit are designated A, B & C, so I used a permanent fabric marker and wrote the color letters on each piece of fabric. Since I am going to follow the directions for one set and use my method for the other, I underlined one letter on the pieces I will dye my way:

The instructions call for 5 tablespoons of dye for each fat eighth. I am only dyeing 6 colors, instead of 30, and will just use a simple 50/50 mix for every other color. The letters signify the following:
A - Old Rose
AB - Old Rose / Camel
B - Camel
BC = Camel / Stormy Gray
C - Stormy Gray
CA - Stormy Gray / Old Rose

I have my activator and dye mixed and my small containers ready with fabric:

From the instructions - place the dry fabric in a cup and add 2 T. (tablespoons) of water to moisten the fabric. The dry fabric is the row in the lower portion of the image. I wet my fabric first, scrunch it up and put it into the container. The next step is to pour the 5 T. of dye over each piece of fabric:

The next step is to pour 2 T. of dye activator into each cup.

The instructions leave it up to you whether you want to leave as is or ’smoosh’ the fabric. I gave each a squeeze and flipped them over. Then I dyed the other six. I put the fabric in a larger container and pour the dye AND the soda ash (activator) over the fabric.

I ’smoosh’ it around and flip it over several times to try to get even coverage. Re-scrunch, squeeze slightly and put the fabric back into the smaller container. Then I pour the dye and solution from the larger container over the fabric and let it sit.

Since I need my table for other projects, I stacked up the containers, put them in a kitty litter tray and moved them out of the way.

Patience is a Virtue - Part Two
Now, you wait. The instructions call for 4 to 24 hours. My magic number is 6. I did a test years ago and saw no appreciable difference in darkening after 4 hours. But, I was stuck on 6 hours, so a minimum of 6 it is. Usually it is longer. For the over dyes, 4 hours is o.k. since I dye the piece 3 or 4 times.

My Predictions
Looking at the cups, I predict there will be a difference between the methods. How do I know this? Experience. The dyes used in this exercise are mixes. The component pure dyes strike (react) at different rates. Usually yellows first, then reds and blues bringing up the rear. Without agitating the dye/activator solution (like my method), the individual dyes will do their thing and the results may not be what you expect. Whether you like the result is another issue. It depends on how you are going to use the fabric. Sometimes an ‘ugly’ fabric is just the ticket.

Posted under Dye Class

Here is the kit I purchased from Pro Chemical & Dye:

It has enough ’stuff’ to dye 30 fat eighths in pastel colors (each dye packet is mixed with 4 cups of water):
Instructions
Dye A - Old Rose
Dye B - Camel
Dye C - Stormy Grey
Dye Activator (Pro Chemical’s answer to Soda Ash)
Synthrapol (I use 2X ultra all^® - free & clear)
Soften It! (I use Ultra Downey^® - free & clear)

So, how do you get from beige to rose or dusty violet to blueish gray? Just add water!
I weighed out half of the dye (I do not intend to dye 30 fat eighths and I needed some dye to show you some neat stuff) and mixed it with 2 cups of water. I brushed some of the mixed dye on a piece of watercolor paper to show how different it looks from the dye powder:

Then, I put 1 teaspoon table salt in each of three shakers along with about an 1/8 teaspoon of dye.

Mixed it up real good. Screwed on the cap and sprinkled each over a dampened section of the watercolor paper. I covered half of the section and spritzed it with a fine mist of water to help it dissolve even more (bottom portion of image above the shaker).

Then I threw a piece (wide fat sixteenth) of fabric in some soda ash solution (about an hour), flattened it out and sprinkled dye on it. Here’s the finished product:

Looks a lot different from the mixed dye. Here’s a close up showing the pure dye components of each mix:



What would you ever do with it? I used fabric like this here, here and here.

Mixing Dye or Patience is a Virtue - Part One
It’s old clothes, safe place, gloves and face mask time! You may not feel like it, but . . .

Think cooking. Think gravy. Think a flour paste or roux to thicken your gravy. You add a little water to the dye powder to make a smooth paste so you don’t get lumpy gravy. Then slowly add more of the water so the paste gradually becomes a syrup. Keep adding and stirring until all of the water is mixed with the dye.

You may want to make the paste/syrup in a smaller container which is easier to handle.

• Small container - a least 1 cup capacity
• Old teaspoon or one of your measuring spoons
• Larger container with the correct amount of water
• Another large container which will hold all of the dissolved dye

Put the dye in the small container and add a tablespoon or so of the measured water. Make the paste and then the syrup as mentioned above. Add more water so the concentrated dye pours easily into the empty larger container. Hmmm . . . is it all mixed? Maybe, maybe not. At least you’ll know by transferring the dye from one container to another. Use part of your measured water to rinse out the small container - want to get every last drop of dye - and add it with the remaining water. Let’s get ready to dye!

Now, here’s what I do . . .

I weigh the dye using a gram scale in an appropriate size container. I calculate the total amount of dye to mix and use 1/2 urea water and 1/2 warm tap water - lukewarm ‘chemical water’. Too cold and it’s harder to dissolve the dye - too hot and your dye gets cooked before it ever meets a fiber. (I keep urea water on hand for mixing dye - about 2 cups urea to a half gallon of water.)
If I am mixing a cup or less of dye, 1/2 of the total amount of chemical water gets dumped in with the dye. If it’s more than a cup, I reserve 1/2 cup of chemical water. Stir it up. Some dissolve faster than others. Some need a little more stirring and coaching. When I am fairly sure most of all of the dye is dissolved, I run the dye through a permanent coffee filter into its storage or temporary container using a funnel if necessary. I use the remaining water to rinse out the initial container and flush out the coffee filter. Rinse and repeat for the next color.

Next stop - Fat Eighth City using Pro Chemical’s kit. I am going to dye 2 sets of 6. One following their instructions and the other my way. How different will the 2 sets be?

Posted under Dye Class