Dyeing Day!

The North Texas SAQA group met last Saturday at Jules' dye studio and created some fabulous fabrics. Jules has the perfect setup -- a three car garage with lots of worktables and three large, deep tub sinks. Everyone was working on something slightly different and we all came up with some really cool cloth.

I also managed to dye myself. My gloves, which were admittedly several years old, leaked. Both of them. Time to buy a new pair of dyeing gloves. Blue fingers are not necessary a wonderful look for me.

Blue fingers! Photo by Jaye Dodds

As I said, everyone was working on some fabulous patterns and textures. Deborah was painting a piece with small swoops of color.

I was interested in seeing how solid I could get my fabric with very little water and virtually no thrashing. I am obsessed with solids but not obsessed with trashing. Usually when I dye I mix the powder into several gallons of water in a bucket, add the fabric and knead and mash and mix the heck out of it. For ages. It's pretty exhausting. So I decided to use about 3 cups of water, a TBS of dye powder and gallon baggies. I used 2 yards of PFD fabric in each baggie, so it really wasn't very sloshy. I kneaded the baggies briefly at the beginning and then turned them over occasionally. And, to my surprise, they came out pretty solid.