Fiber-reactive Dyes

Recently I purchased The Art of Cloth Dyeing from Craftsy. It is taught by Jane Dunnewold and is a blast! I must confess that I became impatient watching the video and missed a step, I think. The key to dyeing the Dunnewold way is heat and time, as she says. I think I short-circuited the heat.

cotton sateen - cobalt blue

It is a very low stress way to dye with chemical dyes. And it is not messy at all. I did it in the laundry room and did not dye anything accidentally, as far as I know. I used my tea kettle to make sure the water was hot enough, but otherwise did it all in my utility sink. The rinsing process was very easy - I used the utility sink for the cold wash, then my washing machine for the hot rinse. No renegade dye anywhere!

Generally I prefer natural dyes. However I purchased some of these fiber-reactive dyes a few years ago and decided I should use what I have. Of course, I'm addicted now and so will probably be purchasing more.

I used the cobalt blue for most of these. I added a pinch of the Kelly green towards the end. I can see the difference.

Homespun cotton, started out cream colored (see tiny original), used cobalt blue.

Hanji paper takes the cobalt blue beautifully. It is fragile during the rinse step and I tore the dark one quite a lot. The *plaid* one was folded tightly and wrapped with a rubber band. The paper started out bright white.

Old linen shirt from the thrift store. Here I added a pinch of the kelly green,after I had been using dye stuff containing only cobalt blue. The change was small and patchy. It was not completely submerged in the dye, as it was an afterthought.
I used it for clean-up first.

You can see the effect of the pinch of Kelley green added after I started using the dye.

You can see the old dyeing I did - probably tea, but maybe rust.

Silk noil, started life a natural color, seen below in the small piece of the original.

In sum, I am most enamored of the Hanji paper.  The color is so rich! It may migrate onto my hands when I stitch it, but maybe not.