Cynthia St. Charles Store

Monday, July 27, 2009

Indigo Dyeing Continued


Here you can see two pieces of fabric on the grass. The one further away has just come out of the vat. The one closer came out a bit earlier. It is really fun watching the colors change before your eyes!

I dyed a number of T shirts, jackets, and scarves. I placed them on plastic lids in the sunshine to oxidize. I had to keep moving the fabric around to expose pleated areas, etc. so everything could oxidize.
As the fabric came out of the vat, it was green, gradually shifting to a nice dark blue.

Even on the second or third dip in the vat - the fabric would look green when it came out . . .even though it would be dark blue going in. Interesting!

I hung everything out on the clothesline to dry. Apparently the dye fixes better if it is fully dry when you do the washout. It got into the 90's today, so things should dry quickly.

The pale blue fabric only went into the vat once. The loosely woven wraps went in twice, and three times. The jackets went in two or three times.
It is so hard to wait . . . but I know I really need to delay handling these fabrics any more until they are fully dry. Then I will remove the ties and do a wash out. Stay tuned!

3 comments:

  1. JUST what I needed - ANOTHER type of dyeing process to call my name! You make it look so easy, I just may have to try this! Thanks for sharing/tempting! I think! ;-)

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  2. I had no idea indigo dyeing would start out looking green, that's absolutely fascinating!! I hope you'll be able to follow up on these posts, I'd love to see some close-up shots of the completed dry fabric. Good luck!!

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  3. Great results! Thanks for sharing your process with all the photos.

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