Dye Party

My Guides are on summer holidays and I suddenly have an evening free. What better way to celebrate then by hosting a dying party/workshop with a couple of friends. They wanted to learn to tie dye so they came over to pick my brain and use my buckets.

I went shopping for garments suitable for the dye pot. The usual advice is white, 100% cotton but I wanted my dye projects to show a few different effects to the newbies.

This tank is white cotton but I was hoping that the lace wasn't so I'd be able to demonstrate how different fibres on the same garment, in the same dye bath give different effects.

Which is also why I chose these knickers. With a cotton front piece and a nylon/poly net it would definitely have some variation. It's also a good example of thinking outside the outerwear for your dye projects. 

This burnt orange top was bought to show over dyeing. I like the style but the colour is a bit to cheery for me. Who doesn't have clothes like that? So it became another example of what you can do with dye. 

Before everyone got here I got the kit out. I mixed the dye with water. We used Dylon Fabric Dyes For Hand Use (beware the flash if you are on an iProduct) because it's readily available and only takes 1 hour. I mixed the powder with 250ml, which is half of what it calls for on the packet, in case we wanted to do a mixed dye bath. We also needed salt, buckets, scales and elastic bands to use as ties.

We made up 4 dye baths is total. Intense Violet, Burlesque Red, Antique Grey and one mix of Burlesque Red and Antique Grey. Ad well as tie dying we put some garments in without ties and had a go at dip dyeing. Disobeying the packets again we didn't in any way stir or agitate the dye bath which gave greater variation in colour.

When the time was up I flung everything in the washing machine on a spin cycle. When it came out mostly dry we removed the bands to reveal our creations. They then hung on the balcony to air dry while we watched a film. It was a fabulous night and I got three new wardrobe pieces out of it. 

Grey tank with pink lace. I love this colour and I think the uneven dye take up is gorgeous.

I think you'll agree that these knickers look much more fun than the plain white ones.

And the more moody colour of this top is much more me.