Fabric and Trim Dyeing

Just before Christmas I needed to pot dye a mundane shirt. I had some over-bright braid and trim that I thought I would throw in too. The gold braid seemed to be mostly cotton, but I was pretty sure that the lace and ric-rac braid were predominantly polyester.

The trim pre-dye

 

I dyed the shirt and the braids in a pot on the stove for about twenty minutes. I used some left over liquid dye (brown) and some powder dye in navy. The resulting colour was an aubergine brown. I rinsed the braid and shirt until the water ran clear.

 

 

The trim after dyeing

 

 

Although the result on the poly-blend braids is very subtle, I am happy with the result and much more likely to use the trim on garb now.

How to Dye Silk Organza from Threads Magazine

Here is a link to Threads Magazine's article on How to Dye Silk Organza:
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/29867/how-to-dye-silk-organza?utm_source=email&utm_medium=eletter&utm_content=20130312-dyeing-silk-organza&utm_campaign=threads-eletter

Trim dyeing

Recently I had another try at pot-dyeing. After the last time, my second-hand dye pot sprung a leak (while filled with dye, which was inconvenient to say the least) and I had to search around for a replacement. I found a nice one at a thrift shop at an excellent price.

I had some pink bobble trim which I wanted to turn black, and some ribbon trim that I just wanted to take the 'sharpness' off.

The bobble trim pre-dye

The ribbon trim pre-dye

This time I used some dry powder dye that I found in my stash.

The ribbon and trim bubbling away

The finished ribbon trim. A subtle difference, but an improvement.

The finished bobble trim. Perfect for neo-Victorian costuming.

The next step is untangling the mass of ribbon and trim that came out of the pot!

Trim dyeing

This week I decided to try and dye some trim that I had in my stash.

I wasn't sure of the fibre content of the trim; I suspected a poly-cotton blend.

I realised that I was not likely to use it in it's pink form, so I pot dyed it with some Rit cold water dye (brown), salt and a little laundry detergent.

I stirred for 30 minutes while the dye liquid simmered. I rinsed, following the dye packet instructions, and waited anxiously to see how it would turn out when dry.

And I was delighted with the result! Now I have too many fabrics that I can use it on!