Low-Immersion dyeing

Here I was thinking I was trying immersion dyeing for the first time, and while digging around on my blog, I see that I not only did immersion dyeing, but used the same ancient Createx dyes! That post is here . Too bad I didn't document how I did it the first time.

And the funny thing is, doing it the other day, I decided I really like low-immersion dyeing and it may be my go-to method for using Procion dyes. Less messy, I don't have to stir big tubs of fabric, and don't have to wait for ice or snow to melt.

For this low-immersion dyeing, I used my ancient Createx liquid dyes I had bought used, for pennies, a few years ago. I got sick of them taking up room in my dye box, so decided to use them up by doing low-immersion dyeing.  They are so old that I figured they wouldn't be very strong so I mixed roughly 1/3C of the liquid to make 1 cup of dye. I somehow had lot of brown dye, and did use some Procion Brown, Golden Yellow, and Antique gold with it in two of the containers.

For my dyeing method, I put one cup of dye in the bottom of the container, squashed one yard of damp fabric into it, then added a second cup of a different dye color on top. After 20 minutes, I poured in one cup of soda ash water (3 tsp soda ash dissolved in 1 cup of water).  The two containers (that had Procion colors mixed in) were rinsed out after two hours. One container had folded fabric and one had a scrunched fabric. The dyes did not get into the folds of the folded fabric and left a lot of white. Also, the brown seemed to be more of a maroon and had a red/pink cast to it. The scrunched fabric turned out great with lots of color variation. (Colors used: Createx Brown; Procion Brown, Antique Gold, Golden Yellow). The folded ones are getting re-dyed today.

 Detail

The other containers I let sit for 24 hours. I did this since the dyes were so old, and also in one of them I used black, and I had read it is best to wait 24 hours when using black.

I don't think these dyes were as stale as I thought. The fabric in the containers that sat for 24 hours ended up not having a lot of variation.

Createx brown and magenta

 Createx blue and black

Createx blue and purple

I really like these fabrics, enjoyed immersion dyeing, and am glad to have those Createx dyes out of my stash (they weren't getting any younger, and unlike wine, do not improve with age).

Over-dyeing with low-immersion dyeing

The other day, I did some immersion dyeing and did not like how these two folded pieces turned out. My brown dye ended up very pink (it was very old dye).

 Detail.

 I decided to over-dye them using low-immersion dyeing, but scrunched them, instead of folding them.  I put 1 cup of Procion Olive Green (2 tsp in one cup of water) added my scrunched damp fabric, then poured in 1 cup of Procion Golden Yellow (2 tsp in one cup of water).  I let it sit for 20 minutes, then added my soda ash water (3 tsp soda ash dissolved in one cup of water). I let it sit for 2 hours, then rinsed the fabric out.  I should have probably waited a bit longer, but still like the results and it is a huge improvement.  I would definitely cut these into smaller pieces, as I still don't like how strong the line pattern is from the first dye.

Dyeing with discontinued Createx fiber dyes

There was an art store closing in my area the other week, and I went to buy a couple things. On the "free" table, there was a box of Createx liquid fiber dyes.  Not one to pass up free dyes, I thought I'd give them a whirl. I tried to find out how old these may be, since Createx doesn't make them any more, but couldn't find anything. My feeling is ten or more years, as they had a price tag from a different art store that hasn't been around for a long time (They had been opened and partially used, they weren't for sale in the store I was at. I think they were class supplies that got tucked away forever).

My first stab, I tried to ice dye with them, which was a huge waste of time. Evidently they don't like the cold. I washed them, soaked them in a Soda Ash solution again, and did low immersion dyeing. The bottles said they were concentrated and that I should dilute them 7:1 part water, but I did more of a 4:1 mix. The results aren't bad.  The best piece is in the first picture on the right. This is a heavy weight twill, almost a denim weight. The rest kind of look like a Monet painting. I think it's funny that they have some much pink/magenta in them, as I only used a small amount of red and a ton of blues and purples. I think the purples must have changed color due to age.  All the containers had rust, royal blue, a darker blue, and two purples. Some of them also got some red. Sorry, I hate to iron, so fabrics are still wrinkly.

These blues remind me of cloudy skies and I am thinking about  making a cloudy sky quilt with them.

I have a couple pieces that are blah, which I plan to dye Navy, with Procion MX dyes, sometime in the future. I have an idea for a quilt with Shiva stick texture rubbings.