Friday 1 July 2011

Trying Dyeing.....


Inspired by a comment from Lynn at Sea Angels a while ago, I decided to have a go at dyeing fabrics.
This oatmeal coloured French linen chemise with simple tucks and initials was my first project....


 I dyed it black along with some white Oska linen trousers and a green stripe Noa Noa coat dress that I had accidentally splashed with bleach.

I was delighted with the results, especially the bleach damage which has vanished completely.

Since then there has been no stopping me and yesterday saw the second French chemise enter the indigo blue dye with other things.



The Oska top which was originally lime green, has gone a darker shade of blue compared to the cream chemise which I think makes it all the more interesting.

 Needing a few more pieces to dye and with nothing to lose, I decided to throw in these boring off white crochet mats....


They turned out much prettier than I expected and can you believe I hadn't even noticed that they had crochet butterflies around the edge!




This intact and beautifully embroidered runner had been soaked to remove some stains, unfortunately this made the yellow dye of the flowers bleed onto the white linen.



Instead of cutting out the butterflies and discarding the rest, I popped it in with the other things and crossed my fingers.


Not quite what I had hoped for, but it is a learning curve!
( Probably should have just cut out the butterflies as I had planned initially )


Some plain cream, stained linen mats went in too and are now in the process of being printed with a French theme.....


Why not give it a go...especially with old linen.

*Word of warning...some modern clothes have polyester thread which does not take the dye. I still have green thread on the now black Noa Noa coat dress...

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and thank you once again for your kind comments.....they are very much appreciated.

Julie x

P.S. Sorry about the colour variations and dodgy camera work.....taken on my phone in the Conservatory with the sun playing hide and seek behind the clouds!

12 comments:

  1. Hello Julie

    These results are inspiring. I have some lime green linen trousers (I'm not sure what I was thinking the day I bought them). Blue or even better, black would be much more me. Perhaps I'll have a go.

    Anna

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  2. they've come out really well, i really like the muted shades of the dye. I hope you enjoy your
    G & T! Have a lovely weekend x
    sophie x

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  3. I love the indigo linen. I recently dyed a slightly marked cream padded quilt cover a delicious shocking pink! M x

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  4. What a range of shades your dyeing experiment has produced. It must be exciting waiting to see what appears as each item dries!
    x

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  5. Dyeing to see what you do next Julie!!!! Hee hee!!
    Love Helen xx

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  6. Now for the technical stuff - what dye did you use?
    A machine dylon or did you do it by hand?

    I'm impressed:-)

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  7. Initially I read the title as tie dyeing and thought the colours all looked too universal and not like I remember tie dyeing t shirts many years ago. But I misread it and your results are amazing. I haven't done any dyeing in a long long time.

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  8. Hi Julie,I love the clothes you have dyed they are lovley shades.Love Jill x

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  9. Isn't dyeing such fun, a kind of alchemy.
    I have dyed a lot of old linen and also clothes ( sometimes I've bought something that I like the shape of but not the colour )
    The old napkins that I dyed recently are just lovely.
    I want to do some REAL indigo dyeing soon
    I did it years ago and loved it , we were blue , everything was blue - completely addictive.

    Diane x

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  10. Hello Julie,
    Your 'Trying-Dyeing' worked perfect! I do love the slightly faded dark-blue-indigo.....wonderful.
    As you probably know from my blog, I'm dying quite a lot of old line. Experimenting, mixing colors, having sometimes disappointments, and very pleasing surprises....It is so exiting and for a wile I became nearly obsessed!
    Good luck for your next projects and best wishes for the week.
    Greetings from the Périgord,
    Karin

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  11. I love dyeing things, it's such an adventure. I love tea and coffee staining too. Well done every thing looks great, and wonderful that you saved the Noa Noa coat (too lovely to lose!)Love Linda x

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  12. gorgeous results!

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