Sunday, September 19, 2010

Dye Job

Inspired by this Martha Stewart article, I spent part of a recent Saturday dip-dying anything I could get my hands on including plain white stationery and this linen fabric.  After dyeing, I tore the linen into the width I wanted and sewed a boundary line about 1/4 inch from the edge.  Then I frayed the edges, as shown below.  I love it!  (And I had enough extra linen from the yard I had purchased to make a wrap in the same style.)
While I was at it, I also dip-dyed  this plain white cotton knit shirt.

The dip-dying is easy.  The hard part is not making a mess.  I used a dish pan in my bathtub, and set up the clothes drying rack right next to it (with lots of newspaper underneath).  When it was time to rinse the fabric, I transferred into a stainless steel bowl, then to my stainless kitchen sink.  System worked pretty well.  Follow Martha's tips, and those on the package.  I used 1/2 a package of Rit powder dye (Royal blue) for all of these things and had lots left.

To get the gradations of color, I simply did a double-dip.  This project would be great for a crafty tween.  Oh, and since I did have to sew the boundary line, I'll count this as a sewing project for the September sewing month.  ;-)

9 comments:

  1. Teafan6:13 PM

    That scarf is awesome! The shirt is really cute, too.

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  2. Blue! My favorite color!!! I love the transition from white to dark. :)

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  3. fun project! I really LOVE the shirt.

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  4. I loved that article too and was debating trying this out. I might actually start looking for a few things to dip-dye myself now.

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  5. Great project! I love the blue and the gradient color. I remember trying to get a factory do that when I was working in the apparel world. Now that was tricky in production.

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  6. Awesome! I would not have dreamed this was a DIY project -- definitely a professional look here!

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  7. Very creative. Great & inspiring job on that scarf- can we say "Christmas Presents"!!!! You know I do have three daughters, two sisters, two sisters in law, a mother in law and two granddaughters! LOL!!! (PS how funny, my word verification to post here is "tryoning" HA!

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  8. Mary Jane5:16 AM

    Your ombre dying inspired me to find a skirt hiding in the back of my closet that I had made at least 35 years ago. I did not dye it myself but this kind of fabric was all the rage back then and I love it as much now as I did then.

    You did a fabulous job. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  9. Anonymous9:38 AM

    Wow ! This came out amazing. It's beautiful, really love it.

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