Last week I dyed a few bandanas, 2 different sizes: 22" and 27". 100% cotton. Professional dyes.
They're on sale in my Etsy shop, c'mon over!
First I washed the fabric.
I made the various mixtures that I needed: soda ash and water to soak the fabric in.
I mixed the dye powders in water.
I soaked the fabric.
I twisted each fabric.
I applied the dye.
I put them away to rest for several hours.
I unwrapped and rinsed each bandana...and washed and rinsed some more... and dried them.
Some tips:
It's important to wear protective clothing: these items are not necessarily in order of importance, just in order of what tumbled out of my brain:
1: Wear clothes that you don't mind getting dye on. I don't think I got any dye on the clothes I wore, which would be amazing, knowing me (can't take me anywhere, can't wear light colored clothes in public unless I want to let the world know what I ate).
2: Wear gloves. I have a box full of nitrile gloves. They're comfortable enough.
3: When working with powders, wear a mask. It doesn't matter how careful you are, wear a mask. I'm comfortable with wearing mine now after wearing masks for 2 years because of covid.
Once the fabrics were washed and soaked, I started twisting them into different shapes, mostly following spiral or mandala patterns. (I'd love to try some of the patterns that make specific designs like peace signs and whatnot. Maybe I'll tie dye a cat portrait! Maybe I'll dye a pair of stained jeans to give them a new life, with DIFFERENT COLORED LEGS! Maybe stripes!
Before I started twisting and tying fabric, I settled down with a few YouTubes to refamiliarize myself with the process. Riah's Tie Dye is my favorite. I learned that you can not only dye fabric with mixed liquid dyes, but you can also sprinkle dye powders onto the fabric, then put ICE on top of the powder and let that sit for 24 hours. I NEED MORE FABRIC! People, buy my bandanas (and looms and yarn) so I can buy more fabric to try out some of these cool techniques and make tie dye paintings, and also pay a bill or two... and food. Some people call them tapestries, but as a tapestry weaver, I'm hesitant to do that. It's complicated, and it's controversial ... until I get this sorted out in my head, we can call them TIE DYE PAINTINGS!!
Enough of the babbling. Here are some photos.
Ta ta my pretties!
