The Basics: Dying Yardage

In my mind there are two basic types of dyed fabrics: those that can be used for yardage, and those that have specialized patterns. These are a few of my yardage pieces. They fall into this category because I could cut pieces out of them in a variety of places and still get pretty similar designs.

This navy grid is an over dye. The original stripey blue was too dull for my liking, so I added navy on top.

Dying Yardage. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

The navy, green, and rust below are also over dyes.

Dying Yardage. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog
This yellow fabric was a commercial fabric that I tried a lavender rubbing on. It DID NOT look good, but it mostly faded when I washed it. This time, I tried it with an orangey-red. I think it works and that it will be useful.

Dying Yardage. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

The navy print, above, was stenciled and the background orange was added last. I would have liked it to be a little brighter, so this one might get an over dye down the road.

I work with thickened dyes. The thickness allows me to stencil and paint with them, knowing they’ll stay where I put them, without bleeding. But, I like that bleeding effect, too, so I did an experiment to see if I could get thickened dyes to bleed effectively. I sprayed the fabric and dye painted the two sides in blue and yellow.

Ellen Lindner's fabric dying. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Then I scrunched the fabric up and left it that way to dry. I could immediately see that the two colors were, indeed, blending.

Ellen Lindner's fabric dying. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

These are the final results. It definitely shows promise. I’ll have to play with it some more.

Dying Yardage. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

As you can see, this is just a tiny swatch, but I included it in this post, since I think it will be a yardage technique in the future.

Some of these yardage fabrics aren’t that exciting, but I usually find them to be quite useful.

Ellen Lindner

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