October 21, 2009

Dye It, Dye It, Dye It

This is an easy way to dye fabric. The results are amazing. Any color combinations will work. Don't work the fabric too much or the colors will turn muddy.

Materials: Six 1/2 yd pieces PFD pima cotton, soda ash, salt, 6 different colors of MX reactive Dyes, two 1 gallon plastic buckets.

Method: Mix 9 Tbls soda ash in 1 gallon of warm water; stir to dissolve. Plunge pima cotton into soda ash solution and let sit for 10 min. then wring out. Add 1 cup salt to soda mixture and stir until dissolved. For each dye color, mix 1 level tsp. of dye into 8 oz. of soda ash/salt solution. (I put about 1 oz. of the solution into a container and then measured the dye - mixed it up well and then added the remainder of the solution.) Shake fabrics out and place one piece of fabric into the bucket and pour one dye solution over top. Continue for each piece of fabric using a different dye - start with the lightest dye color first. I used golden yellow, terra cotta, leaf green, turquoise, blue and black.
Cover bucket with a plastic bag and let sit over night. Rinse the fabrics well and then wash in hot water with Synthrapol with a cold rinse. (I did this twice.)

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