dying fabric

[gardenquilter]

how many of you dye your own fabrics and what methods do you use what has given you the best success

[naniyosie]

We had a dyeing workshop at our guild one month. I enjoyed dyeing the fabric. There were 18 members who took the workshop; and we worked in teams of 3. My fabric and my 2 team mates fabric were all different. Don't know how that happened, because we put our fabric in the same amount of dye and all.
I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't take it up as a hobby of my own. It's time consuming; and very costly.

[calicopuzzle]

I have used "sun paints" to dye fabrics and set images on them like leaves and ferns etc...Lots of fun and they are permanent colors once they are set as the instructions indicate. They are available at Michael's Craft stores.

[Tiggersmom]

I just attended a dying workclass and thought it was fun.
I do have the room/area where I can start dying and I might do so if I can figure out a couple of things......how to rinse the dye out after 24 hours without using so much water! It's unbelievable the amount of water it takes to get the dye out.

Our teacher buys her stuff from dharma trading co. and uses fiber reactive Procion mx dyes. We did red, blue and yellow and mixtures of each so we ended up with 18 1/2 yard cuts of fabric all dyed differently. I used the scrunch method of putting the fabric in the plastic bags.

I'm thinking about doing it again but maybe using a spray bottle or brush.

[naniyosie]

Just found out that our 'art guild' is having a dyeing class and their using 'shaving cream'. I have never heard of this. Can anyone give me any insight?

[cindyg]

Naniyosie - I saw the shaving cream thing on Simply Quilts. I'm afraid dying my own fabric is way beyond what I have time to do so I ignore it and enjoy going to my LQS and getting fabric someone else has died.

[Tiggersmom]

naniyosie, the shaving cream holds the dye in a specific pattern. The steps are , fill your tub/or container with shaving cream, drop or squirt your dye in several different locations on top of the shaving cream, 'comb' through the dye similar to making a swirled chocolate/yellow cake, lay your fabric on top and when you lift your fabric up you have a swirl/streaked piece of fabric. You then have to gently lay this down and give the dye its time to do its thing. It is then processed after sitting like dying any other fabric.

[gardenquilter]

that sounds really cool - would love to see the result

[naniyosie]

that does sound neat.
We're doing the dyeing fabric in October.
Will try and learn how to post pix and will post.

[Quiltcreator]

OMG, I read the subject line and thought your fabric was expiring!