Adventures in dying

Vats of dye were dotting the lawn this weekend as I embarked upon a long-time goal to dye this fantastic Seed Catalogue print from Holly Holderman's Annie's Farm Stand line of fabric from Lakehouse. It's a white on white print which works perfectly for this dye approach.

I have been wanting to do this ever since I saw Jeni's post here.  Unfortunately, I needed to do it outside since my laundry room sink is teeny (aka non-existant) and there was no way I was tracking dye around my house.  So outside on a sunny day we go.

I used these dyes from Dharma:

Robin's egg blue
Charcoal Gray
Parakeet
Goldfinch
Orange Marmalade
Wasabi
Procion MX dyes - in Midnight Blue and Raspberry

Mixed up according to the directions on the Dharma Trading site - great instructions guys!
The whole process worked perfectly.

This picture shows the unaltered colors.  From the Top down are:
Raspberry
Orange Marmalade
Goldfinch
Wasabi
Robin's Egg Blue
Parakeet
Midnight Blue
Charcoal Gray



 I love the results.
Some of the colors turned out better than others. For example the darker colors really show the white printing much better. The raspberry and midnight blue bled a lot until they finally rinsed clean - way more than the other colors.

My favorite color is Robin's egg (such a clear pretty blue).  The Parakeet makes a lovely shade of aqua.  The Goldfinch turned out way more mustardy than anticipated.  I just used the standard amounts recommended for each of the dyes.  Changing the quantities and the amount of time in the bath would also change the colors. So there is lots of room to play with the colors.
 
It took about 4 hours to get these fabrics dyed in 2 batches but that was partially because I was still figuring everything out.  The 2nd batch actually went much quicker.  Totally worth the effort.  The amount of dye I made was the smallest that directions called for and I could've easily dyed more fabric if I had had it.

Fun stuff. Now to sew with these beauties!

Happy Sewing!