Dyeing Rayon crochet thread

I was at Craft Scraps a few weeks ago and got some white Rayon crochet thread for dirt cheap. I thought it would be great for embroidery. I cut it into sections and mixed up some Procion MX dyes in zip lock bags.

I waited an hour than added soda ash. I also added more thread at this time, some bags got more rayon thread, and each got some mystery white yarn that appeared to be cotton. I let it sit for a few hours then rinsed them out in the sink with synthrapol and water a bunch of times.  I need to start tying my yarns and threads prior to dyeing so they don't end up a tangled mess.

Here are my end results. The center shows the white rayon that I started with. I believe my colors are (starting at the top, then clockwise): Pagoda Red, Hot Pink, Golden Yellow, Bright green, Don't remember, Lapis (I think?), and Deep Purple (I think?). 

The rayon threads that I added with the soda ash are lighter than the ones that were sitting in the dye for an hour. I love them, now I need to go embroider something!

More ice dyeing, layered in a pot

I bought about two yards of this fabric at the thrift store and thought I would ice dye it. It has a white printed pattern on it.  When dyeing this kind of fabric, the print stays white and the rest of the fabric accepts the dye.

This is sometimes called "parfait" dyeing (layering fabric/ice/dye). I cut my fabric into fat quarters so I have eight pieces. I am only dyeing 6 of them this way.

I soaked my fabric in water with soda ash for about an hour.

I am using a large enamel pot, and put an enamel strainer in the bottom. As the ice melts, I don't want the fabric to sit in the puddle of water in the bottom of the pot. The strainer is about 1 1/2" high.

I squish my fabric so it fits in my enamel pot. 

I then add a layer of ice.

I sprinkled Procion MX dye powder on top, three colors and less than a teaspoon of each. I then did another layer of fabric/ice/dye powder. The first pot I only got two layers. The second pot, I got three layers.

I threw in a piece of sheer that I was pretty sure was polyester. Sure enough, it didn't dye.

I will show the results on Monday!

Dyeing Bamboo fiber

I am planning on making some art with wool roving and my felting (embellishing) machine. I wanted some silk fibers to add some shimmer.

I went to Fancy Tiger in Denver as I know they carry wool roving. They had silk/wool blends but did not have 100% silk. I found some Bamboo fiber that had a lovely luster. It had been slightly dyed and had some blue-ish sections.  I decided to dye it six different colors, so I would have multiple colors to work with.

This is the bamboo fiber, as purchased. I bought two, but am only dyeing one of them.

I soaked my fibers in a soda ash solution for about an hour. I have a big bucket of soda ash water that I just keep using over and over, but I didn't want the fibers to get all tangled or lost in there, so I put them the solution and fibers in a gallon size zip lock bag. I knew I'd be using six colors, so pulled it apart into six sections before soaking it.

I mixed my Procion MX dyes with some salt in sandwich size zip lock bags (6 colors).  I used about a 1/4 teaspoon of dye in each. 

I put the fibers in the dye bags. This is when I think, what else can I throw in these dye bags? They are pretty small. I decided to dye some cotton lace/crochet.  I dunked it in soda ash water for about a minute, and left them pretty drenched with the solution when I took them out and put them in the dye bags (since I did not let them soak very long).  I left the bamboo fibers in the dye for 2 hours, and the cotton lace/crochet for four hours.

I used the same gallon zip lock  bag I used for my soda ash soak to rinse the dyes out of the fibers. I did not want them floating loose in the sink. I did pierce the bag in multiple places thinking the water from the sink could flow in and out of the bag, but it didn't really work that way. I let the lace/crochet pieces be loose in the sink. I did not wash anything in the wash machine. I washed everything in the sink, one cold wash, two hot washes, (all of these with Synthrapol) and then one hot wash with no soap.

Here is the bamboo fiber after it dried.

I used my fingers to pull it out in tufts to reshape it.

Here are all my pretty fibers. They are darker than I really wanted, but still will be great in my felt art.

And here are the fibers with the cotton lace/crochet pieces. From the top, Jacquard color names unless noted otherwise: Carmine Red, Bright Green, Avocado, Lapis Blue (Dharma Trading), Deep Purple. The blue fiber above that did not have any matching lace/crochet is Azure Blue (Dharma Trading).

I plan to work on the felted art pieces later in the month. Currently I need to work on some mixed media pieces for a Call for Entry due December 19th.  I have them in the works already so will show progress photos in the next couple days.