Super Easy Low Immersion Dyeing with Colourcraft!

The idea of dyeing your own fabric can feel a bit overwhelming...different chemicals to think of, special equipment etc etc. Guess what, it does not have to be complicated at all!!! This week using the procion dye starter kit (plus an extra color or so), some basic measuring equipment(make this for dyeing only!) and prewashed fabric (no softeners!), I got some fabulous, festive results in Fall colors!!

I started with the starter kit, in addition to everything else, you also need containers that your fabric fits in when scrunched up- here I have a jar and a couple of small plastic buckets.
My fabric is just prewashed- it's dry and not treated with anything! Scrunch it up into those containers!

Next I blended about a teaspoon of each color I wanted to use with about ½ cup of tap hot water.  I took my inspiration from Autumn leaves- Olive green, Vivid yellow, Scarlett, Orange and Violet.Then it's just pouring it over your scrunched up fabrics! You can use pipettes, you can also start with some dye in the bottom of your container, squish in the fabric, add water, squish some more, add another dye color. It's all about experimentation! 

You can see how the dyes sometimes split when creeping along the dry fabric- especially in the top photo.

How long this step takes is up to you! If you fix your fabrics too soon- you won't get a lot of the beautiful effects that happen over time. If you wait too long- your colors will blend together and become diffuse. The process takes from 15 minutes to an hour. 

While my fabrics were doing their thing- I blended together the fixative (soda ash) with hot water. I use 1 tsp per cup- the tricky part is that is per cup of total liquid- that is, the liquid you had in your dyes as well. I estimated that I used about 2 cups total of liquid with the dye, and that I would need 4 more cups of water to cover my fabrics so I mixed 4 cups of hot water with 6 teaspoons of the fixative.

When I was ready, I poured the fixative/water mixture over each of my fabrics. When this soaks into the fabric, the dyes stop reacting. 

I let these sit a couple hours to make sure the fixative mixture had soaked in-you can let it sit up to 24 hours if you want!

Then it was rinsing my fabrics (I throw them into the washing machine)and dry them.

I am so pleased with the results!

The fun thing about this last one is that I used a fabric that had been a commercially printed white on white design. The printing doesn't take the dye, which gives a lovely result!

So easy! With fantastic results!!
Give it a try!!

See you next time!

click here for the Procion Starter Kit

Dyed & Printed Skirt Part 2

I’m back for part 2 of my summer skirt.

 See part 1 where I dyed some plain fabric.

Making up the skirt

I made up a simple wrap skirt with my dyed fabric, using darts to give some waist shaping and two buttons and pieces of ribbon as a fastening.

You need one back piece and two front pieces. Each of the three pieces needs to be half your waist measurements across the top once the darts are made.

I like to finish side seam raw edges with pinking scissors to avid them fraying.

Turn over a small hem on the two free front edges and then a slightly larger hem around the bottom.

I made a strip to add a narrow waistband.

First, this is stitched right sides to the top of the skirt. The seam was pressed towards the band and the top of the band was pressed down 1cm.

Both ends were folded right sides together and stitched. 

Turn out to make neat ends.

Stitch the folded over waistband in place.

Make a couple of buttonholes, and stitch on buttons and ribbon ties. I like to use the magic pen to mark the position of the buttonholes before stitching.

Nice enough but I wanted to create a design for a truly unique skirt. My deliberations included whether to create a floral or feather design, and whether to use block printing or screen printing to make the design. I sketched a little in my notebook and tried out ideas on some spare fabric.

Earlier this month I visited the Quilt festival at the NEC and the Colourcraft stand. Lovely to chat to the friendly folk there and I also fell for the fancy feathers stencils which come in two sizes. I also got a Colouricious feather wooden printing block. I want to create a feather design now!

Dye Paste Mixing

I’m continuing to use the Colourcraft Procion MX Dyes Complete Starter Park. 

This contains a 15g pot of manutex, which is a seaweed-based thickener that can be used to make Procion MX dyes into a print/paint paste. (Note: Manutex is also known as Reactive Stock Paste).

You can mix the 4 teaspoons of powder in 1 pint of cold water and mix thoroughly. You can use a hand blender to make sure the paste has no lumps and is the right consistency. Leave to stand (Note: this paste only lasts a few weeks and can be kept fresher in the fridge. Discard if there is mould or smell.

The starter pack also contains urea. Urea slows the drying process and therefore allows more time for the dye to react with the fibre, yielding deeper shades. So I decided to dissolve 1 tablespoon of the urea in a cup of boiling water. I strained this and then sprinkled on 2 teaspoons of manutex. I labelled a tub and put the date of mixing.

I can then spoon out a little of this mixture into a palette tray to then add different dye colours to make up a palette of colours. A tiny amount of dye powder makes a strong colour, but check on a scrap fabric first.

Note: when using the dye powders it is advisable to use a mask eg. the disposable Valved Respirator Mask FFP3 (For fine toxic dust/mists/fumes with 2 elastic looped retainers conforms to EN149)

Note: Colourcraft also supply Manutex in 100g and 500g tubs, and urea in larger tubs

Printing using the Stencil

Using my Procion MX dye mixed with my manutex paste, I brushed colour through the feather stencil. The colours will mix as you do this unless you leave each bit to dry in-between colours. Similar colours on the colour wheel will give nice mixes. Be careful not to mix too many colours though and get a brown grunge colour! Trying out on a scrap of fabric first is a good policy.

If you want to do more than the front of a skirt, then using the stencil with a screen would speed up the process.

I'm sorry. I got so involved with this that i forgot to take a photo!

Block Printing

Set up a printing station with protective sheet then some thin foam to help the printing process.

Lay fabric onto this ready for printing.

Load up sponge block with dye paste and apply to the wooden block design. Ensure good coverage but avoid excess paint in the grooves. Now you’re ready to turn the block over and place down on the fabric.

Push and rock side to side a little. Keep hands in place for a couple of seconds to let the dye paste soak onto the fabric. It’s a good idea to stand up to block print as it gives a bit more power to your arms!

(It’s also a good idea to do a practice print for each block as often the first one doesn’t work so well. The wood seems to soak up the paint).

Wash your block with soap and water, with a scrubbing brush. Always wash your printing blocks after use; the sooner the better, so that it’s easier to get the paint off.

On both the stencil and block, I added a little copper metallic fabric paint with a small brush.

Fixing

After stamping spray on a solution of soda ash. I added 6 tablespoons of soda ash (in the starter pack) to my 1litre bottle of water. Note: there is no need to rush to spray your newly printed design, as the dye will stay inert in the fabric. However, make sure you know that you have sprayed with the soda ash solution before washing.

As an extra heat fix, I baked my skirt in the oven for 5 minutes at 150°C. I then cool rinsed on its own in the washing machine to make sure any unfixed dye was removed. You can use Colsperse scouring agent to aid this.

Fibre reactive dye is the most permanent of all dye types. Unlike other dyes, it actually forms a covalent bond with the cellulose or protein molecule. Once the bond is formed, what you have is one molecule, as the dye molecule has become an actual part of the cellulose fibre molecule. So you can safely wash a garment that has been dyed in bright fibre reactive colours in your normal wash load.

So I’m ready to wear my personalised skirt.

I would love to hear about your dying and printing adventures, so please do comment below.

Helen x

HOME - embroidery hoop with Ewelina

Hey everyone!

I want to share with you my latest obsession - embroidery hoops.

I have loads of various types of canvas and burlap and have been creating loads of different projects after stretching them on various size embroidery hoops; some of them are mixed media, some are just fabric, some are painted canvas - just like this one.

To start, I chose the hoop I was going to use and outlined it on the canvas so that I knew what area I was working on. (Make sure you have an eraser ready to later on remove the outline! It took me good 15minutes to find a white eraser which wouldn't leave colourful lines on the fabric... oh, well...)

I attached the canvas to a cardboard to make it easy to stencil on and then attached the stencil where I wanted to add the design. It's important to stop both the fabric and the stencil from moving during the process to avoid smudges and spills.

Rather than using block colours, I tried layering and blending them a bit.

After removing the stencil, the design looked a little bit 'square' so I randomly added some more flowers to build it up.

Now for the hard part (for me) - writing.

I test-wrote the word first and once I was happy with the outcome, I transferred it onto tissue paper. That allowed me to play with the placement on the canvas; once I decided where to add it, I transferred it on to the canvas ready for painting.

I used my old PIGMA BrushPen and black paint to write the word - I find it works better than using regular paint brush.

Now that all the painting was done and dried, it was time to do some stretching... 

It's important to aim for the hoop to be where the outline you previously pencilled. Oh, and don't forget to erase it!

Once you're happy with the placement and tension of the fabric, tighten up the hoop and trim off the excess fabric.

Simple but pretty. 

You could add some fabric flowers or hand-stitch the wording...I am leaving mine just as it is right now.

See you next time!

Ewelina

fabric paint opaque

Prima Marketing Art Basics Dabbing Brush - Set of 3

Mettalic fabric paints

Shibori Dyeing with Colourcraft Procion Dyes

Hello!
A few weeks ago, I showed you ice dyeing with Colourcraft Procion Dyes- today I want to share with you a different way to dye fabric called Shibori. Shibori is a Japanese method of dyeing fabric- involving manipulating the fabric to form different patterns. Some designs are stitched, but I wanted to show some folding and clamping techniques.

The basic concept is that by folding and clamping your fabrics in different ways, you will get different patterns when you color your fabrics.

My fabric is prepared with the fixer included in the starting kit, and I mixed all my chemicals using the instructions that come with the kit.

Check out the video for more details!

I hope you enjoyed this information and video. This is a great way to make your own fabrics for art quilting or even to do t-shirts and more! 

See you next time.

Procion Dye Starter Kit