de-stash ideas - dyeing your own fabric
April 2, 2008 by Chloe Findlay-Harder
Filed under Arts & Crafts
I’m not quite sure how I ended up with this cotton gauze in bubble gum pink:
While I like pink, I think it’s just a little too pink… But it’s a lovely fabric and I don’t really want to give it away if there’s another option.
I think this is a worthwhile fabric to try dyeing. It’s 100% cotton (it’s easiest to dye natural fibers) and a small enough length to easily fit into a bucket.
I’m using a Dylon cold water dye kit for this project - it comes with a dye fixative included in the package, but you still need salt as well:
Each dye has different requirements, so read your instructions carefully! I also needed a large bucket to dye the fabric in and a smaller non-metallic container to mix the dye in.
A word of caution - most dyes are toxic chemicals and you should protect yourself appropriately. That includes using a respirator, rubber gloves, old clothes (it’s messy and you don’t want to trash your good pair of jeans!) If you have concerns, don’t use dye! I’ve used it for years and have never had any issues, but pay attention and read the instructions carefully.
Now that I’ve got that over, to use Dylon dyes, you need to thoroughly wet the fabric first in a bucket of cold water:
Yikes - you can see how bright that pink is!
I mixed up the dye concentrate, which includes the dye powder, fixative and salt with some very hot tap water. It gets poured over the fabric - which you then need to stir for ten minutes.
Yes, that’s right - you need to stir the fabric for ten minutes.
Now that your arm feels like it’s going to fall off you can take a break and let the fabric sit, according to the package directions. This batch needs to sit for another fifty minutes, stirring every ten minutes or so.
It now looks like a lab experiment gone terribly wrong:
Haul the fabric out and rinse, rinse, rinse! Toss it into the washing machine (by itself please, you don’t want to dye the rest of your laundry
I’ve never used dyes like this. Only Rit and tea. I got a super bargain on some upholstery cotton chenille fabric that was white, and I dyed it with tea. The chair that I put it on is one of my favorites. Where do you buy Dylon cold dye? I’ve never seen it.
I’ve always bought it at Fabricland, but that’s a Canadian company. Unfortunately, Dylon’s site doesn’t have links for resellers and you can’t buy online yet! Not very useful… I’ll keep checking into it and see what I can find.
I really like how it’s looking wet.
How does it stand up to washing and laundering?
FYI:
I have bought Dylon Cold Dyes at JoAnn’s - in a special display on the endcap of the aisle where stamp pads, craft paint etc. was.
Hi Chloe, I live in Haiti and the Dylon rep. here does not have ( has never ordered and “will not” order…grrrr!)
the Cold Fix. Is there a substitute that i can use, i plan on dying fabric to use on my tablecloth applique project. Thank you for your your tutorial…i have never dyed anything before.
Ruth
Hi Ruth,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - I’ve been doing some research and it looks like you must use the cold dye fix to get the dye to work correctly. I do have some good news for you though - Dick Blick Art Supplies carries Dylon products and will ship them internationally:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/dylon-cold-water-dyes/
Hope this helps!
Chloe