Dyeing day.

Take some cotton fabric:

 
Add a morning at the Textile Center Dye Lab.  Get this:

 
I hadn't really tried fabric dyeing until yesterday.  Generally, I'm a "necessity is the mother of invention" sort of girl -- if I don't have the "right" color, I make what I do have work.  But a morning in the dye lab has made me a fan of custom color.  I know I've barely scratched the surface of possibilities, but I could hardly sleep last night for all the ideas in my head.  (And I kept imagining William Carlos Williams saying, "The fit was on me!")

I'm especially interested in overdyeing and painting with dye.  When I prepare my handstitched garments, I use textile paint -- which can influence the overall drape of the finished garment (because it's thick).  Who knows what I'll come up with now that I'm stocking up in the dye department!

Comments

[gisele]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. My fabric paints are in need of replacement (they're over a decade old and not doing well) and I'm thinking about replacing them with dye. I saw some dye painting on a blog recently and it is a beautiful medium. Something new, though, and I'm not sure where to start (like which dye to buy to begin with). I'll be interested to see where you go with this.