Tien Chiu

  • Home
  • About
    • Honors, Awards, and Publications
  • Online Teaching
  • Gallery
  • Essays
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Dye samples
You are here: Home / All blog posts / Another dye day
Previous post: Wrapped resist as a warp-painting marker
Next post: Start over?

December 25, 2012 by Tien Chiu

Another dye day

Yesterday we had a beautiful clear blue sky, so I ran outside and started dyeing. I had three sweatshirts, three button-down shirts, four sports bras, and six pairs of socks to dye, plus my warp and weft yarns. So I mixed up my colors and got to work!

Here are the sweatshirts:

orange yellow sweatshirt purple blue sweatshirt blue green sweatshirt

They all look about the same (minus the colors) because they’re all dyed the same way, by scrunching them up and pouring dye over them, then allowing the dyes to mix. Not very interesting technically, but sweatshirts are hard and clumsy to dye because the fabric is so thick. These are zippered down the front, which adds the challenge of handling the stiff zipper – so, all in all, I felt it wisest to do them the simplest way possible.

Anyway, I like the colors, though if I were redoing the blue/green one I’d probably substitute turquoise for the medium blue – it would produce a more electric and exciting blue/green. But no matter – the sweatshirt will keep me warm while working out (in my unheated garage), and that’s what really matters.

And here are the three shirts:

violet and bronze shirt purple blue black shirt flame shirt

I like all three of these, though I’m fondest of the violet/bronze and red/orange/yellow ones. The violet/bronze has wonderfully complex colors, and the red/orange/yellow – well, how could anyone not like such a bright and cheery combination? The only thing I’d love to redo is that the back is more interesting than the front; I’d swap the pattern on front and back if I could. Oh well; c’est la vie.

The purple/blue/black is acceptable, though I’m not wild about it.

And the socks?

multicolor socks fuchsia and blue socks

I love these socks, especially the fuchsia and yellow socks in the top right of the first photo. They remind me of orchids, with their exotic colors. I’m also big on the socks in the second photo – I parfait dyed them with turquoise and fuchsia dyes, and got far more interesting color patterns than I’d been expecting.

But really, I love them all!

I also dyed the warps and wefts for the next sample, and am impatiently waiting for them to dry so I can start beaming/threading. I ran out of dyes before I could do the sports bras, though, so they’ll just have to wait for the next dye day. Which may be coming up soon, since I just ordered another batch of shirts and sweatshirts from Sierra Trading Post (which sells remaindered clothing at astonishingly low prices, some of which has a high enough cotton content to be dye-able.) After that I think I should be appropriately wardrobed, and can stop dyeing clothes for awhile.

Share this post!

  • Tweet
  • More
  • Email
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Print

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, dyeing Tagged With: tie-dye

Previous post: Wrapped resist as a warp-painting marker
Next post: Start over?

Comments

  1. Basicallybenita says

    December 27, 2012 at 7:02 am

    What do you mean when you say you “parfait dyed” the socks?  Love the hoodies!!   And, yes, I imagine those zippers would make it a challenge.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Information resources

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • How-Tos
    • Dyeing and surface design
    • Weaving
    • Designing handwoven cloth
    • Sewing

Blog posts

  • All blog posts
    • food
      • chocolate
    • musings
    • textiles
      • dyeing
      • knitting
      • sewing
      • surface design
      • weaving
    • writing

Archives

Photos from my travels

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • Travels
    • Thailand
    • Cambodia
    • Vietnam
    • Laos
    • India
    • Ghana
    • China

Travel Blog

Entertaining miscellanies

© Copyright 2016 Tien Chiu · All Rights Reserved ·

 

Loading Comments...