First DyeTest!!!

Despite limited sleep and a late start, I did some actual dyeing today! I pushed myself a bit, because I wanted something to be curing overnight.

I got the chemicals ready...


I soaked my labeled bits of fabric in soda ash solution...


I planned and labeled and set out the tools...


And did it!


These are 1 ounce cups, each holding a crumpled 5"x5" piece of muslin.

A quarter of a quarter of a fat quarter would be 1/64th of a yard, and measure 4 1/2" x 5 1/2". So I treat 5"x5" as 1/64th of a yard. Once I make a square in a color I like, I plan to double and double the dye recipe to repeat the color on a larger piece. I'm sure the larger dye bath will affect the outcome, but it's a start. I'm trying for maximum color experiments for minimum dye & fabric.

First off, I want to test one color at a lot of different levels of saturation, to know roughly how much dye for how much oomph. I tested Cerulean, at ten different levels. Measuring out dye for all those levels was not as tedious as it might sound. I used a remove-and-replace method that I learned in my wool-dyeing days, which I'll describe another time.

As a starting point, I'm setting my standard 100% saturation at 1 teaspoon of dye per quarter yard. That's for the blue dyes. For the reds I'll use half that, and for yellows & blacks I'll use one and a half times.

I'm not at all clear whether to mix the dye powder with plain water, softened water, or urea & water. Our water isn't very hard, but how hard is hard? I decided to make up some pre-mix recommended for tie-dye (minus the kelp thickener): 1/2 gallon water, 2t Calgon, 2 cups of urea.

I also added some soda ash solution directly to the dye cups. My solution was 1 cup soda ash per gallon of water, and I added 1/2 teaspoon of it to each cup. Can that possibly make a difference? There's about that much solution still clinging to the soaked fabric!

I realize there are dye recipes out there to follow, but I just love to mix color. I want to get to know these dyes. With acrylic paints, I developed my own sense of the primaries: their relative strengths and how they interact (go easy on that phthalo blue!). It gave me that pleasing sense of control that frees a person to improvise. The idea of having that same freedom in coloring FABRIC...hubba-hubba!

Tomorrow I'll see what I've got with Cerulean Blue, then test four levels of all my other primary colors (Fuchsia, Fire Red, Lemon Yellow, Turquoise, and Better Black). And who knows what might happen with the leftover dye...