Dying with Commercial Fabrics

I sure do have fun dying and printing fabric!

As you can see, I make no attempt at keeping my clothing clean. (Usually around this point my stomach begins to look quite colorful, as well.)

It all starts by soaking my fabrics in a soda ash solution. Once they’re line dried they’re ready to react with the dye.

In addition to the plain white fabric you’d expect, I also soak some previously printed/dyed fabrics that need some over dying. Sometimes they just need a little something more, but at other times they need the “completely cover this ugliness with a dark color” treatment. No worries. It all becomes useful in the end.

I did something new with this dye session: I overdyed some commercial ombre fabrics. They turned out beautifully. I’ll definitely do this again, although the commercial fabric frayed much more than I’m used to, so I probably won’t ever use it in a raw-edged application. The top fabric below is one such fabric. I like it a lot. But, I also like some intentionally messy ombre, so that’s what I aimed for with the bottom fabric. I like it just as much.

In the photo below, the purple fabric on the right is a commercial ombre. The yellow one on the left I did completely. It has a few errors, but will still be very useful. I LOVE the way these two look together! I’m thinking they’ll end up in the same quilt.

I dyed this one myself. MAYBE it can be included too. (Although it may be too much of a good thing.)

I have many more results to show you in upcoming posts.

Which one of these is your favorite?

Ellen Lindner