A few weekends ago Clara and I dyed fabric with my mom and had a great time. The process was simple enough and we wanted to do it again. This time inviting over a bunch of friends to experiment with colors and techniques.
NYC was experiencing an indigo dying supply shortage instead of using normal indigo crystals to dye with we used iDye and other Jacquard Products.
Tools wise we used clamps, wood blocks, rubber bands, and bull clips. All used in different combos to produce some amazing results. Clara had cut up a bunch of squares of cloth to experiment with which worked great.
What worked the best:
- Have tons of small squares of test fabric. Everyone wants to try many different techniques and not worry about ruining there one piece of fabric.
- Things are going to get super messy, work outdoors or have a large drop cloth.
- Set up a few tables with clearly labeled dyes buckets / not everyone knows how to dye clearly communicate directions.
- Use easily cleaned / disposable containers.
- Buy a large pack of clothes pins and hang a clothes line. It's awesome to see your experiments build up on the line. And you won't want to keep the clothes pins if you playing around with bleach.
- Get c-clamps and wood blocks to sandwich folded fabric between.
- Using rubber bands to wrap fabric around objects created bizarre patterns.
- Have snacks and drinks around. Everyones going to forget to eat and drink until they are starving.