Hope you all had a good weekend! On Saturday, I dyed the pole wrapped fabric from my last post. I dyed the turquoise one purple and the fuschia one black. Here's the process:
1. I soak the pieces in warm water for about an hour. This ensures that the dye will penetrate all the fabric it can reach, not get stuck along the way because the fabric is dry.
2. I then put salt and dye in warm water and stick the poles in. I leave it for about 20 minutes or until I get the darkness in color that I'm looking for (keeping in mind that it's always lighter once it's dry). 
I sneak peeks every now and then to see how the color is setting:
I then add the soda ash to set the color and leave it soaking in the dye for about an hour (a bit longer for black). Make sure to set the timer!
3. This is always a good time to make yourself some tea. 
You've got a lot of waiting to do and since it's pole wrapped, there's very little stirring to occupy your time. On Saturday, I chose some Japanese genmaicha. MMMM. :)
4. After having the poles in the dye bath for about an hour, take them out and rinse them in cold water first. When the water is clear (no color is bleeding) gradually rinse in increasingly warm water until you're rinsing in very warm water. Because my colors were so rich, and also because I wanted to keep them on the pole so they retained the pleats, I decided to soak my poles in clear water to make sure that all the excess dye was gone.
You can already see the water turning pink on this one!5. After all the excess dye is removed, I wash the fabric with Synthrapol. You can also use a soft dishwashing soap like Dawn.
6. After washing the fabric, pat dry with a towel (don't use any nice ones!) and set out to dry. 
If you don't care for the pleats, just remove the fabric from the pole while you're rinsing and washing it and iron flat. This is also very pretty, but I wanted to keep the pleats so I have to be more patient. I checked the poles this morning and they're still damp, so I think they'll be ready sometime later this week. When they're dry, I'll remove them from the poles, take photos, and let you all see what all the fuss is about!
If you don't care for the pleats, just remove the fabric from the pole while you're rinsing and washing it and iron flat. This is also very pretty, but I wanted to keep the pleats so I have to be more patient. I checked the poles this morning and they're still damp, so I think they'll be ready sometime later this week. When they're dry, I'll remove them from the poles, take photos, and let you all see what all the fuss is about!I can't wait to see them!!
2 comments:
I can't wait to see them either. I will be staying tuned for "Dye Pots part IV"
I should check your blog before emailing you I guess. :)
I'll try to be patient waiting for the results. When do I get one of these? ;p
(Feel free to ridicule me for all the goofy faces I add.)
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