I had been wanting to try some snow dyeing of fabric, so gave it a shot on Monday. I had never done this before, only read about it. I have no idea if this is the RIGHT way…it is just MY way.
Here is what I did:
Using plain, prewashed pieces of muslin (because I always have lots of bolt ends from Steve’s business), I soaked it in soda ash water first. Then put it in the bottom of individual buckets.
Mixed my dyes:
Went outside, scooped snow into each bucket. Completely covering the wet fabric with about 4″ of snow.
Poured dye on top of snow:
Oh heck, lets add some more colors. I put 3 colors in each bucket. But you could choose less or more.
Steve thought it looked like snowcones. I wouldnt let him taste it though.
Then I set the buckets next to the fireplace for oh…… about 3 hours. A couple of times I poked down thru the snow with a straw, but I dont know that it helped the process along.
I dumped the excess snow and dye down the sink, then rinsed the fabric in water till most of the excess dye came out.
Wash in washing machine with synthrapol. Dry in dryer. Iron.
Voila’ !
I am surely no expert at dyeing fabrics. I dont measure exactly, nor do I keep recipes and journals and charts like so many serious fabric dyers. Nope, I keep it simple, fun and relaxing.
All of my dyeing supplies come from Dharma.
Questions? Feel free to ask. And if you click on the picture, it will enlarge it.
Any suggestions on how to use these pretty fabrics now? Art quilt? Pieced quilt? Something else? I am open to all options.
Filed under: ART QUILTS, Color, Fabric Dying, How To, Life, Longarm Quilting, Nature, machine quilting, quilt, quilting, snow dye, tutorial | Tagged: snow dye, snow dyeing
Those are pretty!! And I love the idea of bringing it inside in tubs versus throwing the fabric outside. Very nice!
how cool…Bella loved it!!!
man! that looks like fun!
They are terrific! I don’t have snow to play with (thankfully) but I might try it with shaved ice…
I am a very lazy dyer, I love the unexpected so no planning or recipes for me either!
They look great! Love the long orangy one!
Our snow is just about all gone, but we expect more tomorrow. I need to get some dye powders to try out this summer when I can do it outside.
Way cool!
Yep, still LOVE the orange/yellow one!!! This almost, ALMOST makes me miss the snow! LOL
I have a great idea about what to do with it. I will send you my address and you can send them to me. They would look great in my stash. What? You don’t like that idea? They look great Gayle, I love all the colors.
This gives a whole new meaning to not eating yellow snow!
And Dharma? Hmm, wonder how many Lost fans know about that….
I LOVE this! It makes me almost want to live in “snow country”…. Okay, that’s a very big ALMOST! LOL!
Still, I love your results. Thanks for sharing!
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Beautiful!!!! Now if only it would snow around here….
Blogged on Craft Gossip Sewing Blog: http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-use-snow-to-dye-your-fabrics/2009/02/12/
Awesome fabric! Thanks for the tutorial. Must try this sometime….
Who would have thought of dyeing fabric in the snow? What a terrific idea. What is Dharma? I live in a very small town that doesn’t even have a fabric store. Where can I order it from? I would love to try doing this.
you talk about soda ash, which i am not familiar with. can you share with us the proportions you used and where we can buy it?
I buy soda ash, dye and synthrapol all at Dharma. http://www.dharmatrading.com/tub_dye/
These are the instructions I use for mixing the dye. Beyond that, I just play! Dharma has tons of info on dyeing fabrics in all different ways. It is the best place I know on the net to learn about a variety of dye methods.
And wouldnt it be fun if you were either the Terri or Tal Rosenblatt (twins) that I went to high school with??
Gayle
Hi,
They look beautiful,maybe I will try to make it sometime. Your blog is also very interesting, well organized. Congratulation!
Maria
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Your tutorial was the best I’ve found on this subject, maybe because you seem to be my kind of dyer – I too do studio work in jammies, and although I make my students measure, I pretty much wing it with my own stuff! Thank you – I’m going to check your blog more often for more fun from now on.
So glad it was useful to you. Stop by again!
Hi
any ideas on how we can do this without snow? and what colours/dye do you use?
Nina,
I don’t really know, but have wondered if ice would work. You know the ice that is kind of round with a hole in it? Restaurants use it. Like that. Or snow cone ice. Wonder where you get that? Maybe 7-11 or another fast food place would sell you some? Let me know if you try it. I used fiber reactive dye that I bought from Dharma.com.
I am sure that would work – it’s just frozen water of another type! Maybe dump the ice cubes into a bucket, stuff in the fabric and cover with ice and leave it to freeze, then pour on the dye? Would put quite a bit of on top.