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There is almost no technique more useful for customizing a fabric or a garment than dyeing. Provided that you have access to dyes and paints, you can have any color or design pattern you choose on a fabric provided that you are willing to take the time and effort to learn how to change its color.
Dyeing is a remarkably simple process provided that you have access to a washing machine or a bucket. Despite that dyeing can be very frightening to the novice (just imagine if your $40 a yard fabric turns the wrong color and you're stuck!) it is really very simple in practice to do a simple vat or tie dye of a fabric. (Certain types of dyeing, such as using the Batik or English Wax method to form narrow lines of color, intricate painting, or silk screening are more challenging.) This article will give you all the information that you need to successfully change the color of any fabric for a boring white to the vivid color of your choice.
An example of a piece of fabric that has been tie dyed.
The first thing to know when dyeing a fabric is what a dye is. A dye has a pigment (color) that adheres to the fabric through a chemical bond. The pigment should no more than minimally change the feel and the flow of the fabric, and should be color fast. (Capable of being washed in water.) Because the dye is binding to the fabric itself, both the type of fabric and the type of dye need to be known in advance and “set” for each other.
A paint is completely different. Essentially a paint is a pigment trapped inside a glue that sits on the top of the fabric. So a paint will change the feel of the fabric (usually by making it heavier and stiffer). For this reason, paints are rarely a good way to change the overall color of a fabric, and are better used sparingly for details on a fabric.Different types of fabrics dye differently than others. For instance, protein fibers (animal hairs and wool) tend to accept dyes readily, and so will pick up a very bright color with very little trouble. Silk, in particular, is very easy to dye, and generally can handle even the most delicate of dyes. Cellulosic fibers (plant fibers such as cotton, linen, and hemp) tend to take dyes less well than animal fibers, but better than synthetic fibers (such as polyester and nylon). Fabrics that are made out of a combination of fibers tend to take dyes at a level somewhere in between. Use a type of dye made for the type of fabric you want to dye. If you use a dye made for silk on nylon, you are unlikely to get the color advertised or colorfastness. If you can't find the color you want in for the type of fabric you want, test a bit on a swatch before committing.
Some fabric/dye combinations require a mordant to allow the chemical reaction to proceed. In the past, these tended to be fairly toxic chemicals (heavy metals and caustics were often used to fix natural dyes to fibers). We are now lucky enough that most dyes are designed to require, at most, a mild acid (vinegar) or a base (baking soda) to fix the dye to the fabric. The required quantities of acid, base, and dye to water and fabric should be included on the dye package.
If you can't find the right color, other options are always available. You can mix colors, to get a blend of two. You can add more dye to less water to get a more vibrant color, or use more water and less dye to get a more dilute, faded color. (Note that you will need to add white dye or paint to get a lighter color. Using less will only make the color look more dilute or faded, not necessarily lighter.)
Once you have this set, the final steps of dyeing a garment are quite easy. Fill a tub with warm water, dissolve the dye and/or mordant into it, and then add the cloth. Make sure that the cloth is completely covered by the water, and let it soak in the dye for a period of time, turning it around a bit so that the dye can evenly settle on the cloth. After about fifteen minutes or so, take the cloth out of the dye bath, rinse with fresh water a few times until the cloth no longer loses color, and hang out to dry. You may want to later “heat set” the dye by ironing it.
If this sounds like a familiar process, it is! One of the easiest ways to vat or tie dye a piece of cloth is to put it in the washing machine. Let the machine fill up with water, add the cloth, and let it do its thing. When the wash cycle is over, the cloth will be dyed and the mess cleaned up. (If you're very concerned, you can run a wash empty or with rags after the cycle, but I have never had problems.) It really is just that easy!
A few variations:
You can tie dye, by tying strings or putting rubber bands on parts of the fabric to leave them white after you have dyed them by a vat dye method.
You can “silk paint”, by painting dyes directly onto the fabric to leave spots of dye just where you want them. Once you have finished painting, you can then set the dyes with an iron. (Be careful to use an iron set dye. Some require a steam chamber, which is difficult to make or expensive to buy.)
Or you can use more challenging methods to print fabric with a dye or a paint.
It is exceptionally easy, and can yield phenomenal results. There is almost no technique more useful for customizing a fabric or a garment than dyeing. Provided that you have access to dyes and paints, you can have any color or design pattern you choose on a fabric provided that you are willing to take the time and effort to learn how to change its color.
Dyeing is a remarkably simple process provided that you have access to a washing machine or a bucket. Despite that dyeing can be very frightening to the novice (just imagine if your $40 a yard fabric turns the wrong color and you're stuck!) it is really very simple in practice to do a simple vat or tie dye of a fabric. (Certain types of dyeing, such as using the Batik or English Wax method to form narrow lines of color, intricate painting, or silk screening are more challenging.) This article will give you all the information that you need to successfully change the color of any fabric for a boring white to the vivid color of your choice.
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Sunday, 01 November 2009
There is almost no technique more useful for customizing a fabric or a garment than dyeing. Provided that you have access to dyes and paints, you can have any color or design pattern you choose on a fabric provided that you are willing to take the time and effort to learn how to change its color....
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