On fabric dyeing

I'm afraid I forgot to take the pictures I planned to share today of a pending project...pictures on the camera are slim pickings so please don't hold it against me :)

Last week was our monthly Guild meeting and our program was on dyeing fabric. The speaker gave a very short program on her history with the process of dyeing and then for anyone who wanted to participate, we were allowed to use her supplies! We had been forwarned to bring PFD fabric and the $10 fee as well as wearing old clothes. I would be happy to do this every year cuz there is no way I could stock the supplies to do a little fabric at a time for just ten bucks.

Glynis taught us to dampen the fabric (I used unbleached muslin I had on hand) or just not dry it after a trip thru the washer, to place it in a gallon sized bag, add the dye (about 1 or 2 teaspoons to 1 cup water) and the soda ash (about 1/2 cup). The bag can be swooshed around for a more even dye or it can be left alone or you can even leave the fabric dry, twist it into a knot and then dump the dye on it. The air is then let out of the bags and they are left to sit for at least 24 hours. The fabric is then "sandwich washed" - first cold water, then hot soapy water and then cold water again. I did the first wash in the sink so I could make sure the water was running clear for each color. The next 2 washes were done in the washer. Yes, I did wash them all together with a couple color catcher sheets. The red was the hardest to get the water to run clear and the color catchers showed that.

Anyways...here are my dyed fabrics. I think it's somewhere between 2 and 3 yards. Some of the colors are not as vibrant as the original dye but they are all still yummy colors!

Yipper - those are new undies on the left - when some of the guild memebers found out what I was doing they asked me to model them at the next meeting.  :^)