Several months ago, Brittany and I went to a loft sale and purchased a giant tube of lemon-colored stretchy knit fabric. The tube is taller than either of us and flops and sags like a giant pale yellow noodle. To say the least, it isn't the most fashion-forward fabric, but it was very affordable and we were certain it would come in handy to Workroom designers.
The noodle has rested ominously against this wall and that in the Workroom for several months now, collecting dust and laughing at us behind its impossible shade of "jaundiced straw". What to do? During a recent brainstorm for Belle Époque, the noodle came in handy for some quick draping and then we thought, "Dye?"
Not certain that the fabric would hold color, I wasn't very optimistic at first, but then I remembered a craft project I'd re-pinned (thank you Pinterest for altering speech) months ago about dyeing buttons and I thought I might be able to kill two craft projects with one bucket of dye.
Brittany is about to take on the world of chemicals and in honor of her crusade, (and because I was plum out of RIT dye), I decided to use fruits, vegetables and spices for this project. Spoiler # 1: being dunked in a bucket of luke-warm vegetable juice for two minutes will not change the color of plastic buttons.
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| Into ever dye-job, some chemicals must fall - the blue effect was created using good ole shellac-filled writing ink. |
The bucket contained juice from two cans of sliced beets, water (approx 5 cups), baking soda (approx 4 shakes of an open box), balsamic vinegar (ginger dousing since I still remember how to make a volcano) and turmeric (several shakes of an open spice jar). I've read and heard that if you boil your dye, and the fabric along with it, you'll get a better result but I was impatient so I just dunked the fabric after carefully wrapping buttons with hair ties and I only dunked for two minutes or less. I think the turmeric would have been more successful if it had been boiled first and I think - duh - fresh beets are much richer in color than canned ones.
I'm happy with the results because it means that nasty noodle is transformable, which makes it seem more like a lingering caterpillar, avoiding metamorphosis. Noodle, caterpillar...either way, we're going to have some beautiful fabric to work with in the coming weeks.
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| Any color in small doses is delightful. But can you imagine yards and yards of that yellow? |
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| The semi-translucent fabric could be great for curtains or lampshades. |
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| A modern take on tie-dye |
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