Angela ~ Fixing Dingy Gray Clothing

What on earth is this, you may ask.

Underwear, cotton underwear that is supposed to be white but over the last few years has turned gray from the minerals and/or additives in our water.  I was tired of my whites looking like they were never laundered so I dyed them!

I was hoping to find a beige or pale pink but our Walmart, which is the only game in town, was woefully inadequate.  This is 'aquamarine' which on the label looked about 10 shades lighter.  Oh well, no one sees them but me.

I used a 5 gallon bucket, put in 1/2 cup of salt and some Dawn as recommended on the label, 3 gallons hot water, the entire bottle of RIT dye and 10 pair of undies.  I also threw in 4 washcloths that were also gray.  I used a stick to stir it around several times during the 6 hour bath.  

I pulled each piece out and squeezed out as much liquid as I could and set aside.  Dumped the residual dye bath as I had no other use for it and cleaned out the bucket.  At the sink, which is in the garage, I rinsed and squeezed out the liquid from each piece about 4 times to remove excess dye, it was almost clear by then.

Then I ran a short cycle in the washer with detergent, dried in the dryer and voila! I have no more dingy gray undies.

I do recommend wearing gloves to do this as 4 days later I still have blue spots on my hands.

Suz: Dyeing As September Ends

 September is soon over, and cooler autumn weather will be arriving. I took advantage of the last few sunny days to try dyeing some cotton and some silk hankies.

cotton fabric
leaves from my garden
sun dyeing technique

silk hankie
leaves from my garden
rock salt
pearl dye for the shimmer
sun dyeing technique

silk hankie
ferns from my garden
rock salt
pearl dye for the shimmer
sun dyeing technique

silk hankie
leaves from my garden
sun dyeing tehnique
rock salt
pearl dye to add the shimmer

silk hankie
shibori technique
all pearl dyes

another angle

Sharpie markers
cotton fabric
rubbing alcohol

after applying the rubbing alcohol

dried

the fabric on the left half was the hankie part folded underneath
it created a soft effect

Sharpie markers on a silk hankie

after the application of rubbing alcohol

less movement than on the cotton

sun dyeing #2
using leaves and stencils

the paper stencils left a soft pattern

the plastic stencil created a crisp result

after a second application of dye in yellow

sun dyeing on silk with leaves

after a second dye of yellow

cotton fabric, leaves and a paper stencil

after a second layer of dye in yellow

the paper stencil has distinct and soft areas of the design

using a felt stencil on cotton

the second dye layer created an even softer effect

Last week I dyed some fabric with avocado pits. After drying, I cut one piece of fabric in half, and threw 1 of the halves into the laundry. After it was dried in the dryer, I put the two halves together, to see if there was a discernable difference in their colour.
It appears as though the tannins in the avocado pits work well as a mordant on cotton fabrics.

I didn't really like the experiments with the markers and alcohol, so I decided to use any left-over dyes on those pieces, as well as a cotton cloth . What do they look like now?

This piece may get some more dye additions. I like the softness of the blue and golds on the lower half, so I may add some more blue to the top half and see if I can cover up more of the ugly bit.
Or I could try doing a shibori technique on this piece to see what happens.

I like the effect on the remainder of this cotton cloth. The section with the bold marker stripes could be cut out for another application.

This cotton hankie sopped up any spills and drips and has a nice soft effect. It could easily be used as is, or used as a sopping cloth in my next dyeing experiments.

My conclusions:
I like the 1 layer of dye on the silk and cotton in the sun dyeing.
A second layer of the same dye colour might be a nice effect.
The yellow layer appears too strong, so I may try a third layer to see what happens.
The shibori technique requires more dye than I used. Even though I put 2 layers on the silk, I don't think the dye  penetrated the silk enough. I do like the results.

Well, that's my week of playing with dyes. It was fun.
I hope your week was a creative one.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz