The Pandoras had our annual dye day today. The day was blessedly less humid, although still plenty hot, but we had shade in Grace's garage. We dyed tons of cotton fabric, plus some other things we had brought along, including yarn, socks and t-shirts. I got a few too many pastels... not what I usually work with... because I was going easy on the dye at the beginning for fear that I was hogging it all.
But at the end, when we still had plenty of dye to use up, I started going heavier, and was more pleased with the results. Here is a linen shirt that started out as a stark white with a black design. I bought it recently with the idea of dyeing it, and it looks loads better now. Much more "me" and it will look great with black linen pants.
I really love the shibori dying we've done the past two years by wrapping the fabric around a section of UVC pipe, and then wrapping it tightly with string, scrunching the fabric down, and then dyeing:
Here are some fabrics done in jars, with a fat quarter or a half yard of fabric in the bottom of the jar, then dye, then more fabric and a different color dye, and so on. Then minimal scrunching to make sure the fabric all has dye on it, and a nice bake in the sun inside the jar.
Here is a white-on-white fabric I bought earlier this year specifically for dying. It has a nice bold design that shows up great once the fabric is dyed. Wish I had made these darker shades. I might overdye them next year!
What a fun day, with good friends, a fabulous pot luck lunch, and a great big mess!
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