A little Dyeing

     Last Sunday it was such a beautiful day outside.  Warm low humidity and sunny.  After church I thought what a perfect day to spend in the garage dyeing fabric.  I had put some ideas down on paper a few months ago.  I was going to work on the long thin silk scarves.  However, when I looked in my stash, all I had left were square ones.  OK so lets punt.  I don't have pictures of the final results yet as they are not ready.  I'll get back to finishing them tomorrow.

I folded the scarf into quarters and put a rubber band on the lower part
hopefully to keep it from wicking up the color to the center

Mixing up the green procion dye, I feel like a chemist here.

After mixing it, I put a piece of pantyhose over another cup and pour the mixed dye
through it to screen out any bits of unmixed color.

I put the lower part into the green dye and let it sit.

The dye did wick up past the rubber band, but not too far.

After drying the scarf, I stretched it on one of my frames,  here you can see half of the batiking
with wax.  I used a mix of soy wax and paraffin.  

Here it is all waxed and the lower half back in a darker green the upper half in a medium blue

The green didn't come out as dark as I wanted  so I mixed up a darker batch and stuck it in.
This time I left it in the dye for two and a half hours.

This is the beginning of my second scarf.  I didn't get the rubber band as tight
 and the yellow is wicking further up.  That's what I love about dyeing fabric
the way I do it, it is not always predictable.  Yes I do have plastic covering my work surface.  I learned
that when the dye gets onto the wood, if it gets wet it can transfer to the new piece of fabric.  Boo!!
So with the plastic, I keep rags nearby and wipe up drips and spills right away to keep my work surface clean.

Sew See You Later!

Bette