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dyeing disaster


Scenna

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well lets start by saying I live on a limited income in a rural area, all I have been able to get in cotton crochet thread is white ,ecru and pink. I have seen so many cotton threads that have been hand painted that I had to try it .. I know over and over in this thread it has been said you cannot use food color sucessfully on cotton. but I'm stubborn and had to try it.

first I wrapped a small hank of thread then washed it carefully , let it dry, then for the fun . I put it in a deep enamel camping plate and poured vinegar over it to soak it , then dripped red on one end and yellow on the other and let it set I then took blue and covered the entire piece using a fork to thouroughly saturate the piece, I then carefully lifted the hank out and put it in a zip lock baggie wrapped it around but left one corner open for venting . popped it in the microwave for 2 minutes (nice and boiling steamy hot) let it cool for 20 min then nuked again for 2 min did this four times. let cool and took it out to rinse I was so excited I could see a pretty transition of color and it was dark so if it got lighter it would all be good .

 

The rinsing begins.... first 10 sec all the blue was gone:( next 5 sec all the yellow was gone:( and the final red got lighter and lighter , after a couple minutes of rinsing ( and my four year old asking " mommy did you make a mess?") then rinsing and washing the piece I was left with a 3/4 white with 1/4 light pink hank...

:lol

 

 

So ya know what I proved you are all right lol:lol:yes:D

 

 

happy stitches, Scenna

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So to top off my disaster got to looking at the big open spool of cotton and got to wondering.... :think So I took my lighter to the end of the thread and guess what .. IT MELTED :oops I never tried dying cotton, it was acrylic. :rofl

That explains a lot!!

 

so as soon as I find my cotton thread , I'm gonna try it again!!!!

Sheesh I'm stubborn!!:heehee

 

 

 

 

Happy stitches,

Scenna

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I can't afford the fiber reactive dyes, but I use Dylon permanent fabric dye in vivid turquoise. Really easy and no boiling the water...just use warm water and salt! turned out really pretty on cotton. and I got it at walmart in the craft section for $1.97 a packet and a pacjet dyes a 1/2 lb. of cloth. Next time, we're gonna experiment with mixing colors!:D

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  • 3 weeks later...

Lol ,Thank you for the info.

I know I can use the name brands, but was just being curious ( call it a challenge).

I have now attempted to dye true cotton (not the melty stuff I used last time :rofl )

and the verdict is ...... yes it can be done !!! just do not expect to get a vibrant true color. Reds turn pink, greens go kinda chartreuse, and blue is very pale.

but it will take just not a true color.. cannot wait until there are some poke berries and blackberries ready gonna also try some other wildcrafted coloring as well... really curios about experimenting with them.. ( as if I have the time to play lol)

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Try onion skins. I dyed some thread with yellow onion skins once...and meant to try the red onion skins, but never did. It was fun, but I'm not sure I even used the thread afterward. It's easy for me to buy colored thread, so right now the dying doesn't have the same allure I know it would if all I could get was white...

 

I also add color to my thread crochet by holding a strand of sewing thread together with the crochet thread--you get get some great color effects that way.

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hey thanks for the hint of using sewing thread... I sometimes use krenik blending filaments .but regular sewing thread would be much cheaper .oh but watch out I might be trying to dye that next lol :rofl I'm the same person who taught her friends how to coffee dye thier t-shirts to cover the original coffee stain . and not to mention the red chile dye.. That one was beautiful , but potentially painful to work with ( came out yellow to orange to brownish red ) but the stain was not noticable anymore lol ..

 

Thanks for looking at my post of experimenting madness here its been fun !!

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