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Cotton, Take One!

Thanks to wonderful directions by Marjorie of I Dye Every Day, I dyed my first hank of cotton. The directions are in the comment section of her Flying post. I dyed muslin.  Since I haven’t dyed cotton before, I didn’t want a disaster with expensive fabric. 😎  The only change I made is to soak the fabric in soda ash for about 1 hour before putting it to the dye mix.  The dye mix has soda ash in it also. I had a hard time finding washing soda.  None of the four chain grocery stores or two drug stores by us carried washing soda. It looks as if Biz has replaced it. Knowing that washing soda (soda ash, sodium carbonate) is used in swimming pools to help pH balance, I bought some soda ash at a pool supply store. Purple is my favorite color so I had to use that first!

Here’s the fabric marinating in the dye mixture for 24 hours.  Those Mixed Nut jars from Costco are the perfect size!  They don’t break. 😎

Here’s the fabric drying in the yard.  I wanted to dry it on the lavender bush, but I didn’t think the bees would agree!

The fabric is dry!  I moved the fabric to a new location since I didn’t notice the shadow in the above picture. It really is a beautiful color!

This is the scarf I saw out of rayon that is my ultimate goal.  I’m hoping this technique will give me these results!

I’m waiting for a tutorial on how to use the bottle of resist I got. 😎

15 thoughts on “Cotton, Take One!”

      • Yes, I’ll have to look at the bottle. Didn’t get an expensive brand since I don’t know how to use it. Do I just paint something n fabric and the dye? I’d want the dye to be uniform and not tie-dye look. How wold I do that?

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      • To make the dye uniform in color agitate it. Either in the machine or stir it by hand and use enough dye and water so that it is free to move around. the more you move it around, the more uniform it will be. Of course you can’t do it for hours but 10 to fifteen minutes after you add the soda ash. PS if you soda soaked the fabric I don’t think you need to add anymore to the dyebath. Did you ever check out Paula Burch’s site?http://www.pburch.net/dyeing.shtml
        Lots of great accurate info about dyeing.
        Also i just wanted to mention that I thought the rayon looked as though alcohol or salt was used with the dye to give it that “watery” feel. Is the resist water soluble? Your piece came out so very, very lovely!

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      • It has a tropical look that makes me think baby sling, wrap skirt, swim coverup or something like that.

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      • I only dyed 1/2 yard since I hadn’t done this before and didn’t mind throwing that small amount if it turned our yucky! 😎 Maybe a tote? It does have a tropical look! 😎 Thanks!!!

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  5. I think you are very close with the pattern on the rayon scarf! Do you have any fuschia procion? I would add a bit to your purple to get closer to the color.I can’t resist resist! Who makes it and what is it called? Your makings look like orchids. Gorgeous!

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      • Ok, somehow the last reply ended up in the wrong spot! Sorry, should have been clearer in the picture, I’m was just hoping the technique would lead me to the effect in that rayon scarf. I wan’t necessarily looking for that color! 😎

        And again, I need my dying guru to tell me how to use resist! 😎

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