Monday, April 26, 2010

What Have I Learned? - More Dylon Dye Experiments

I'm at that place where I've dyed with Dylon enough times I can't be bothered to read the instructions carefully every time, but don't remember everything to afford not to. I need "Proceed with Caution" signs in my laundry.

There's what I know now.

1) I am comfortable with my curved wedges. Though there is scope for experimenting further to see how/if I can manipulate the pattern inside the wedges, I know I can do this. So time to try something else, and I need to get PVC pipes so I can try pole wrapping. (I can't help myself; it sounds a bit dirty and I giggle every time I type the words!)

2) Blotches, even larger, flat areas, appear not only when I'm not careful with the temperature or agitation, but also near or as a results of stitches and tied bits. It is part of the design. Sometimes.

3) Dylon dye solutions after the first batch, unlike any tutorial videos/DVDs I've seen, does not look anywhere near as weak as "proper" dyes and I've been repeatedly mislead to think I can have a second round. As my Kaz Project pic shows, as did my second shirt after the first dye bath, the second batch is considerably weaker, though I like these pale colors very much, and have use for them.

4) If dyeing in more than one color, start with the darker (?) I've managed to obliterate the hydrangea petals down the front, and the start at the back, among others, in the second shirt. In fact, any/all traces of the lovely pale Wedgwood blue is gone. Duh!

5)In fact, I don't like this super-saturated marine-blue on my shirt now. This is going to have to go into another bath, even if it ends up murky brown!

6) Colors indicated at the back of the new (?) Dylon packages are unreliable, far more so than the old tin lids.

I use Dylon because it's so easy and they are available all over the place, but after I use up the tins and packets, I shall graduate to "proper" dyes where I might have a bit more control.


My Kaz Project, dyed in the first (top) and second (bottom) rounds of the same Dylon solution.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Meg

    I'm no expert, but as I understand the colour left in your dye solution - to keep things easy for people dylon dyes are a mix of different dye types so they will work on lots of different fabrics (generalise to cellulose and protein). If you're dyeing cotton, the dye that works for wool etc just stays around with nothing to do.

    Cheers
    Judy

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  2. Is THAT so, Judy. Well, that makes sense. And now I know not to be fooled by the appearance. Thank you very much for that information.

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  3. Pole wrapping--hee!

    These are fun. I especially like the look of the fainter paisley shapes decorating the sleeves.

    Dylon must be the equivalent of our RIT dyes--little boxes of powder in the grocery store that are most commonly used by teenagers and housewives to make disastrous mistakes--me included. Perhaps that is why I have no interest in dyeing. Though I love the products others achieve.

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  4. Yes, Trapunto, sounds about right. I'd be in the disastrous housewife category. In the past, I often used the their hot dyes - what I used to call the washing machine dyes. Packaging, recipes, and color names seemed to have changed a bit while I was not interested in dyeing.

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