Tuesday, January 01, 2008

dyeing muslin




I did a lot of dyeing last night. You should see my hands. They are cranberry! It will just have to wear off in a few days. I wanted to dye some muslin for the heart journal swap. I have other fabric but wanted some muslin as the background piece. The color of muslin begs to be colored.
I used some Adirondack color wash with a little water and gold pearl ex mixed in. I put it in a container. I wet the muslin first - wrung it out - that is why you see wrinkles in it. Wetting it first helps it to accept the color wash faster. I tried it first dry and I was not getting the coverage I wanted. I need to iron it to soften it a bit. I then crumpled it up and dipped in the container of color wash. I wrung out the excess ink and repeated until the entire piece was colored. I then took it to the sink and rinsed it to get rid of the excess color. So, that I would have the tie dye effect. I crumpled it again and did a little dip in a different or same color. I did not rinse again. I just laid it out to dry.
The middle piece has some Radiant Rain sprayed on it.

1 comment:

Karen Campbell said...

These look terrific, Belinda -- I feel motivated to try dyeing muslin now!