hand dyeing advice

[greensurfingbear]

I made a hooded blanket shirt (see here)

I want to dye it but a little worried about how the colours turn out. tempted by a brown or green just worried it'll turn out horrid.

dry weight is just shy of 1kg so I'll need a few packs of dye which ever colour I go for.

anyone got any pics of things they have dyed and how it turned out

cheers folks

Orric

 

[Toddy]

Seriously that has to be a good prospect for a succesful dyeing with tbags.

Cheapest, strongest tbags you can get hold of, wash the shirt and keep it wet, boil tea bags in a huge pot of water, really really make it stew, strain the liquor into a big bin or such like, and add enough extra water to allow you to move the shirt about in it easily.

Tea is tannin rich, tannin will afix a colour onto wool, but it'll darken the colour. Since you don't mind, and would be quite happy with a rich rusty brown shade, the tea will do fine

If you want to try something else, you'll probably be better using a mordant, but on wool it's all very possible.

You might be in a position to acquire loads of oak bark or willow bark, or oak galls, or acorns. None of those actually need a mordant, though they do a bit darker with one.

I have to suss out how to take images from the website to post, but the link will take you to the photos of the wools that I dyed with native Scottish plants.
http://www.seamstimeless.co.uk

Interested to hear how you get on with it

If you want to go the chemical route though; buy Acid dyes, and they come in a huge range of colours and are available from companies like George Weil.co.uk.

Mind that if it doesn't say that it will dye wool, then it won't. Animal hair needs and acid dye.

atb,
Toddy

 

[greensurfingbear]

had a feeling you'd be the first to chip in thanks Toddy.

I recall John Fenna doing a wool shirt with tea bags...might go down that route. Cheaper than the acid dyes £4 for a pack and only does 250g of dry weight fabric.

worse case scenario if I aint happy with the tea result I could always try using a pack of dye to change the colour.

 

[Toddy]

If you're up for playing around with chemicals a bit, then you can make your own mordants, and they'll really help darken the shade you get.

Tell you what, you organise a place and a time, and I'll come across and we could do a dyeing day Use what's growing where you are and see what we get ?

Commercial dyes are very effective though

cheers,
M

 

[greensurfingbear]

now thats an offer that would hard to refuse! you been across to clyde muirshiel regional park before?

 

[Toddy]

A very long while ago.
I've worked for most of the Countryside ranger services across central Scotland at one time or another. Not as a Ranger I hasten to add, but as one of the folks they bring in to do events or workshops. Marion (can't for the life of me mind her surname) asked me to do a dyeing workshop for a community group the last time I worked there, iirc.
I do have friends in the area though, so I know more about it that way.

atb,
M

 

[greensurfingbear]

Id love to have more traditional skill workshops held at the park, like the idea of not just being a place to visit but also a place to learn