Thursday, May 18, 2017

So you want to dye some fabric?

A recent Facebook post by Robbie E. turned into a wonderful discussion all about dyeing and washing out cotton fabric. I made a couple new friends that way; one wrote: "This is making me so confused. All I want to do is start dyeing! Any tips on where to start?" Lots of people pitched in before me to praise Ann Johnston's book "Color By Accident." It's still the standard reference, and I was happy to recently revisit some of Ann's techniques. I've been able to scale up to larger pieces of fabric, given the right container.
Another excellent book for beginners is "Tray Dyeing" by Claire Benn & Leslie Morgan. Time to re-read that one!
There are great on-line resources available at Pro Chemical & Dye and Dharma Trading, plus Paula Burch's website here.
And, if you're coming to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza show at Oaks, PA, I'm teaching Dye Boot Camp on Thursday, September 14.
Now that the nice weather is here, it's time to give dye a chance!

Wednesday, May 03, 2017

Testing, testing

Took a photo of my upgraded methods to test for bleeding.
1- fold a piece over and iron between white fabric
And
2- throw a white swatch into the hot wash to look for bleeding in the washer