I came across a great deal on fabric while browsing through my favorite local shop the other day.
$1 per yard for a stretch cotton waffle weave!
At that price, how could I resist picking up a couple of yards?  No, I didn’t buy the whole bolt – I restrained myself to two yards, thank you for asking

There was a reason why it was marked down so cheap… there are some odd stains running through the fabric.  They don’t smell and didn’t really change with washing.  It almost looks like someone dropped some dye solution on the fabric.
While I don’t …read more

There are so many different ways to color fiber – your imagination really is the limit!
I’ve blogged about my various experiments with dyeing and painting fabric before, using everything from traditional fabric dye, onion skins and acrylic paint.  Cyndi has been running a great series on creating your own surface design fabric.
But have you ever thought about using Kool-Aid to dye fabric?
Snow Angels has created some gorgeous yarn using the drink powder.  You’ll never believe some of the colors she’s come up with – they’re so vivid.
I wonder if they would work on wool fabric too…

I wanted to share some of the cotton quilting fabrics that I’ve hand-dyed, using the same dye as this project.

The only difference between these fabrics, and the much more subtle gauze that I dyed is the amount of water you use in the dye bath.
I used a low water immersion technique (LWI) to create the more mottled prints.  The fabric is damped down with water, crumpled up and then placed in a large ziploc baggy.   You then pour the dye concentrate (just the hot water mix, without adding any extra cold water) over the fabric.  Close the bag and …read more

As promised yesterday in part one of the how-to, here’s the finished fabric:

It’s a softer, slightly mottled shade of coral – much more flattering now!  It’s almost impossible to create a totally solid shade, you can end up with anything from a dramatic marbled tie-dye to soft waves of color.
Generally, the more you stir, the more even the fabric will turn out
I think this particular piece of fabric is going to end up as a shirt.   It’s  a lovely lightweight cotton and should be great when it finally warms up around here!

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 …read more