R/Co. Project AW10:Dye It Blue.

For a very long time the idea of dying my own fabrics and making patterns with dye has been dancing around up in the ol' noggin. Well I have finally tried my hand at making a basic fabric another color.

I decided that it might be a little easier to control my dye mess if I did so in a few 20 gal plastic bins.

I have always wanted to experiment with natural dye and dye stuffs but I do not have any indigo on hand so I hit up the local fabric shop and obtained a jug of rit dye.I followed the instructions for the first bit, warm water, some salt, the jug of dye and a few pounds of cloth, agitate for 30-60 min and all that. As the deadline I have set is looming way to close I really should not be experimenting with anything but stay focused on getting this here project completed. What fun is that? Well I just let it go after about 15 min of swishing around. So a few days ago I built a nice stencil for a stab at a bandanna pattern. I have been wanting to see if I used melted wax if it will act as a resist on the fabric when dying. It might be a really interesting bandanna for sure, if it works.

Well it did not work quite the way I hoped but I would never have known if I did not try.
(still want to do a bandanna that does not use screen printing, so have to go back to the drawing board on that) Since that did not work I have been planning to do an all over dot pattern on a woven fabric that will one day will become a button down shirt. Well my wax idea placed over a stencil was a miss so I just started dropping the wax at random all over the fabric and chucked her into the dye bath to see what would happen....

All and all it is not perfect, not that perfect is what I am going for, ya know a little streaky and splotchy. I am stoked to have finally given the wax and dye idea a go even if it did not work out. A few more pieces of raw material for the final goods are ready with lest than two weeks left to build it all. Not too sure how much will get built in the end but I am really enjoying the ride.....

Now go wreck some of your own ideas...

Cheers.