Fast, Fun & Easy Fabric Dyeing: Create Colorful Fabric for Quilts, Crafts & Wearables

By Lynn Koolish

Learn to dye fabric the quick and easy way with twelve can’t-miss techniques for adding custom color to fabric, clothing, linens, and household goods.

How can you make quilting or crafting more fun? Add color! Everything you need to know about creating fabulous hand-dyed fabrics is right here—what supplies to get, basic techniques to try, and how to achieve different visual effects. Photo galleries give you lots of ideas for projects to show off the results.

• Fast! Lynn teaches you the techniques that produce rich results with minimal time and effort.
• Fun! Learn to create lots of exciting color blends, patterns, and textures.
• Easy! All you need to get started is this book, a few supplies, a measuring spoon, and some plastic containers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 5, 2010
• ISBN: 9781607053019

Book preview

introduction

This book is designed to help you start dyeing with a minimal investment in terms of time, effort, and supplies. If you already know the basics, you will find some new approaches and techniques.

There are many ways to dye fabric. I’ve experimented and adapted methods to find the ways of working that fit my needs.

Fast: I generally use methods that don’t take a lot of time or effort. I want to dye the fabric and start using it.

Fun: I dye fabric for myself because it’s fun, so I don’t want to get bogged down by complicated methods, time-consuming techniques, or extensive record keeping.

Easy: I always have dyeing supplies on hand, but because I dye sporadically, I don’t want to keep mixed dyes or other solutions around. I mix what I need when I need it. I also use the minimum amount of supplies to get the job done.

In addition to dyeing fabric to make quilts, garments, and other projects, I have learned that it’s just as easy to dye clothes, household goods, and other things I already have. In my house, anything that is light colored or stained is a prime candidate for dyeing. I routinely dye clothing, as well as faded bath towels, spotted kitchen towels, stained linen tablecloths and napkins, and more.

So what are you waiting for?

Supplies

You don’t really need very much to get started dyeing. The essentials are dye, fabric, and soda ash. The supplies are easy to find and easy to use.

Basic supplies for dyeing

dyes

This book is about using Procion MX dyes. They are also called fiber-reactive dyes because the dye forms a permanent bond with the fabric—the color becomes part of the fabric. When properly fixed with soda ash, the dye is colorfast and will not wash out. In fact, your dyed fabric will probably be more colorfast and washfast than most commercial fabric.

Procion dyes can be used on all natural fibers—cotton, rayon, linen, ramie, hemp, silk, and even wool.

The dyes are readily available, are safe to work with, and are used at room temperature with warm water.

soda ash

Soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate or dye activator, is used to fix the dyes, making the color permanent.

fabrics

You have many choices when selecting fabric to dye. Dyeing does not change the hand or feel of the fabric, so buy good-quality fabric that you like the feel of. If you are dyeing for the first time, you may think you should use cheap fabrics because you are just experimenting. But cheap fabrics often don’t take the dye well, so you are likely to be disappointed. It’s better to buy good-quality fabric and experiment by using smaller pieces. Your dyed fabric is only as good as the fabric you start with.

COTTON

Any 100% cotton fabric can be dyed as long as it is not permanent press or treated with stain-resisting finishes. Buy cottons for dyeing from a quilt or fabric shop or from a source that specializes in fabric that is ready to dye, called PFD—prepared for dyeing (see Resources, page 63).

PFD means that the fabric was not finished with any chemicals or coatings that will inhibit the dyeing process, so the fabrics can be used immediately. If you are not sure whether a fabric is PFD, prewash it (see Prewashing Fabric, page 7).

Another term you will come across is mercerized. Mercerization is a treatment in the manufacturing process that adds luster to the fabric, making it stronger and more receptive to dyes. Mercerized cotton will give you slightly brighter colors and more distinct textures and patterns. Whether you choose mercerized or nonmercerized