Dying Fabric

I've never tried dying fabric before but there's always a first time. Colleen asked me to test her newest pattern, "Treasures of the Deep", and I thought maybe I would try coming up with my own flesh colour. I have different shades of white (and yes there are many shades of white ), but nothing much in flesh tones in my cupboard that I like. And there are also so many different flesh tones with such a diverse world, so off I went to find some fabric to experiment with.

First it got washed to remove sizing. I used a cold water dye and two different types of cotton or cotton blend fabric. I filled a bucket with cold water and added the package of powder that you need for setting the colour. Then the dye went in. I didn't measure anything. Just mixed those three things together and went for it, after all that's when most happy accidents happen. The fabric went in and got swirled around for about 10 minutes. Then it was submerged completely and left for an hour. After that I just squeezed out the excess water, rinsed until the water ran clear and put them into the dryer, then heat set with the iron.

One isn't quite tight enough a weave to take the pressure of stuffing (I know because I tried....oops). The other worked out great. Here is one of the samples. The next is below. The colour here doesn't look so much different, but when you feel the fabric and see them in real life, they are quite different. The last picture is showing the two fabrics side by side to see the difference. One took the colour darker than the other and both have a subtle mottled look. I love them both. The colour and brand of dye is Cafe' Au Lait by Dylon #17 and is the cold water type. The hot water ones are right beside it in the display, so watch for the ones that say cold if you decide to try this. I would guess that if you followed the directions for measurements exactly, the colour would be deeper, but I'm happy with how these turned out...




















but which one did I use for this design ;o))) Guess Colleen will have to wait and see. I know how patient she is....