this winter before it got too cold, i thought i would try my hand at the shibori indigo dyeing trend that i am seeing everywhere. blue is my favorite color and i wanted to use make tablecloths and napkins for parties and specifically, a baby shower. my sister and i tackled this project together and had so much fun. i bought this indigo dye kit and these cloth napkinsto dye. i am so happy with the results and am sharing some of the lessons we learned.
{indigo dyeing kit, wood blocks, and rubber bands}
{napkins folded six ways}
{the 'bloom' on top of the dye bucket}
{mixing in soda ash}
{wet bucket, dye bucket, and rinse bucket}
{post dyeing dry out - start as green and fade to blue}
{the results after unrolling}
{hanging on diy rope line}
{six different designs}
{tablecloth hanging to dry}
{tablecloth design made with woodblocks}
this turned out to be a really quick and easy diy, and now i have some beautiful textiles to use. thanks natalie for your help! a few tips:
- make sure to buy more rubber bands and more wood blocks than are in the kit. we used a large bag of rubber bands and made some large wood blocks for the tablecloth design.
- spend the time to get everything set up before starting - the lines, the rinse buckets...so you can quickly dye and hang.
- if doing a large amount of fabric, use large clean five gallon buckets.
- dip into the dye more than once. we only dyed once and the colors fades when dry. they will look very dark at first, but only because it it wet.
- wash in the washing machine once after dyeing process with no detergent on cold.
- these two tutorials are really great for folding designs. (one and two) i also made up a few of my own designs.
there are endless possibilities. be creative and enjoy!
xoxo
madeline