Fabric Review

I reviewed my hand-dyed fabrics that I recently have done, and wasn't too happy with the red/orange fabrics I dyed. They weren't the colors I wanted. They were more orange than red/orange. So, to fix them, I decided to shibori them with a more concentrated red/orange.

These came out better. I was happier with the colors.

While doing the shibori, I also tried more low-water immersion dyeing with the concentrated red/orange dye. These came out better also.

With my dyes out, I did a few more tray dyeing fabrics. I used lemon yellow, golden yellow, chinese red, sky blue, and brown, pleated the fabric, and squirted dyes in different sections. The 2nd fabric I used scarlet, golden yellow, cerulean blue and brown.

I also tried one by just scrunching the fabric in a dish pan. I used lemon yellow, golden yellow, chinese red and turquoise.

This came out in spots that were rather muddy looking but overall I liked the results.

It was a successful day.

Overdyeing

Last week I used some of my previously dyed light fabrics and tried overdyeing them bit darker with shibori and triangle folding techniques.

I wrapped fat quarter fabrics around 3" diameter PCV pipe. I wrapped the twine around the fabrics and scrunched the fabric up the pole. I then added a darker dye over the fabric and cured in plastic sheeting for 4 hours. Removed the twine and rinsed.

Light green overdyed with a darker green.

Light red overdyed with a red/green mix.

Yellow/orange overdyed with red/violet.

Clear light blue/green overdyed with a darker blue/green.

I also folded fabrics using different techniques into triangles then dipped the edges into darker dyes, placed into plastic baggies and let cure for 4 hours.

The first 2 fabrics had previously been soda soaked and dried.

Light red with medium red overdyed on edges.

Light green with medium green overdyed on edges.

As you can see, the darker dyes took over and just left splotches of the lighter color. Being dry fabric, the dyes wicked up more than should have.

These next ones were folded into various triangles, soda soaked for about 30 minutes, then the edges were dipped into darker dyes.
Light blue/green overdyed with medium blue/green.

Muted light yellow/green overdyed with a muted medium yellow/green.

Light blue/violet overdyed with a medium dark blue/violet.

Light yellow/green overdyed with a medium yellow/green.

These came out much better, the dyes didn't wick up as much and gave a better pattern to the fabrics.

I love the shibori look and will probably do more of it. I had tried the folded triangles years ago putting different colors on each edge and didn't like the results. Going more simplistic and overdyeing lighter fabrics with darker dyes in the same color family makes the fabric more interesting without being overwhelming.

This past Labor Day weekend was a dyeing frenzy. I'm still processing the fabrics and will post as soon as am done.

See you soon.