Discharge Dyeing Day

I was so excited to get this going today. I even had a dream about it... was dyeing with colored dyes ... stuff I found ... including some of K's projects! Yikes! I said you need to watch out for your stuff!

First, choosing to play with that not so pretty green was a mistake! Only one out of the 4 pieces took to dye and only a little bit. Did you want some green fabric? LOL

The soft scrub white paste didn't do so well. (In hindsight, I didn't try the paste on the black fabric that dyed the best.) The soft scrub gel was a bit better. But the best results were from a mixture of 1 part clorox bleach and 1 part water. How easy!

Black scrap - used Soft Scrub paste, created 'design' on corian board with plastic point turner tool and laid fabric down on it. Patted gently and continued this process until piece was covered.

I let it set for 6 minutes and when I went to wash off the paste, the fabric shredded!

My second scrap of black that I did the same way but only let it set 2 minutes lasted fine until the washer and then it shredded.

These 2 are trash. I sure don't want my project to fall apart! It must be something with this fabric and I don't know the source.














The green fabrics did not take to the process. This is green square 1 with its Soft Scrub design. I did this like I described above for the black fabrics. I let the Soft Scrub set on here for 2 minutes (not wanting another fabric to disintegrate!). When it was all rinsed... I had no idea I had done A THING to it! Plain green fabric.

Green 2 - I used Soft Scrub gel this time, nothing. Redyed it with bleach/water combo and nothing.

Green 4 - no notes and no change in fabric either!

Green 3 - Using bleach/water combo, I applied the liquid with my gloved hand. I let it set for 1/2 hour. Result is lightly dyed fabric:
Green fabrics are FIRED from this process! I thought they'd look so nice....

I had a few green scraps that had a teal tint to them and red tiny dots. The first 2 smaller pieces got Soft Scrub Gel. The dyed areas are a bit of teal/blue/gray.

The larger piece I splattered with bleach/water combo and those areas have a touch of pink to them.
Black square 1 - Using Soft Scrub gel, I dipped the opening of a jelly jar and then placed it on the fabric. This is in process:
It took 7 minutes to cover the 18 x 20" piece of fabric like this. I dripped some gel going back and forth also but those drip lines do not appear on the finished piece.

I let it set 35 minutes. Slowly, I could see the rings where the gel was getting lighter. I was getting too anxious so sent it on its way for rinsing. (Flash distorts color a bit.)This turned out nice. Here is the finished piece:
Black 2 - I pleated the piece by hand and clamped on bulldog clips in a few places and then used rubber bands in other spots. I dipped the fabric part that was tied in the bleach/water combo for less than a minute and brushed the untied end w/ my wet hand (top of picture).

It went so fast, I don't have in process pictures. This is the finished piece.



Black 3 - I applied bleach/water combo with the jar opening. It was taking many minutes and the first circles were already fading so I only did half the piece this way. The other half is splattered from a toothbrush (just a carrier, not that I flipped the bristles) with bleach/water.

This is the finished piece:
The light parts look like a dark gray/cream.

Black 4 - I used a plastic point turner which has 2 flat ends and one pointy end to apply the bleach/water combo to the fabric. Imagine carrying water with a knife!
It turned out nice tho!

Black Floral - I pleated this by hand again, tied with a string (not fun!) so added some bulldog clips, and rubber bands in a sort of tie-dye fashion.
I dunked this in the bleach/water combo and nothing happened right away so I let it set a couple of minutes. When I unwrapped it there was a large area not bleached so I ran my wet gloved-hand across the still black area.

Finished piece: Black areas are a nice rust with muted flowers. Here is a close-up:
This whole process was about 2 hours of time. Set-up through clean-up. After the bleach, I rinsed in clear water, then soaked in a bucket of 1 part vinegar + 3 parts water for about 10 minutes. I squeezed out the solution (b/c I didn't have much!) and then soaked the fabric in clear water about 1/2 hour.

When all the fabrics were done, I ran them through the washer & dryer, using woolite and the delicate cycle.

So.... It was fun. It was a learning experience. I'm ready to do something like this again!

I'll use the pieces in a quilt... sometime. No immediate plans. I do think the dyed black fabrics would go nice in a giraffe project!