Tien Chiu

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March 4, 2012 by Tien Chiu

Dyers’ dreams

Yesterday I made a run to Dharma Trading Co in San Rafael, and bought eight yards of Kona cotton fabric plus six colors of Procion MX fiber-reactive dye, selected for their dischargeability.  Then I came home and spent the day in the dyepots:

18 fat quarters, LWI dyed
18 fat quarters, LWI dyed

Here are some closer views:

LWI, fuchsia and blue
LWI, fuchsia and blue
LWI blues and purples
LWI blues and purples
LWI, blue-purple and fuchsia-blue
LWI, blue-purple and fuchsia-blue
Fuchsia-blue combination, LWI dyed
Fuchsia-blue combination, LWI dyed

And here is a closeup of the fuchsia-blue cloth – isn’t it gorgeous?

Closeup of LWI fuchsia and blue cloth
Closeup of LWI fuchsia and blue cloth

Now, just in case you thought the process was neat, here is a picture of my dye table:

dye setup
dye setup

And here is a photo of a jar in process (fuchsia-blue from the looks of it):

LWI jar, in process
LWI jar, in process

Finally, here are pix of two more works-in-progress:

scrunch-dyed T-shirts, in process
scrunch-dyed T-shirts, in process
black sweatpants, in process
black sweatpants, in process

Not bad, considering I only got to spend four hours at the dyepots!

Now, what next?

Today I plan to:

  • dye solid colors in purple and blue – very dark, dark, and medium shades
  • add a complementary color to the mix – rust orange and bright orange, both solid and scrunch-dyed
  • rinse out and screen print T-shirts
  • discharge the screen printed T-shirts using bleach (dishwasher gel with bleach, to be exact – easier to control)
  • mix up thickened dye and paint the discharged T-shirts with appropriate colors for the design
  • screen print black sweats with multiple small designs in gold and orange
  • dye socks and sports bras (which also means figuring out what to do with them!)

I also plan to design and sew my first quilt square for the quilting class, though that may be getting ambitious!

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Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, dyeing, surface design

Previous post: Where to start?
Next post: New wardrobe

Comments

  1. Karen says

    March 4, 2012 at 1:04 pm

    could you discuss how you used the discharge dye? I’m wondering if I can apply that to yarn.

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