#dye bath

[chysgoda]

Fabric soup

[dielukedie-quality-dragon-wizard]

5 gallon cauldron of things being dyed.

<- to be continued

[oh-yes-i-did-not]

TODAY on Leo does something with a goal in mind~ I don’t have a mid season coat, like, for spring and fall. The coat one would usually use for those, the light woolly coat, I use for winter. Because I don’t get cold. If I do I just layer an extra shirt under and I’m fine.

BUT anygays, I thought having another coat would be fashionable so I tried to come up something stash busting. And that’s granny squares. All the cotton yarn it can eat, was the idea, but then I got set on a thicker yarn and had to order some more but WHO CARES, I’m making something of it.

And since cotton is pretty good, granny squeres are just full of holes so I need a lining. Two linings, probably. One for just warmth and wind and another for slipperiness and wind. So today I dyed some basic cotton fabric. It might have been a bed sheet in it’s past life. Or a curtain. Or a tablecloth. But in it’s second life it’s now my top lining fabric.

I used a blend of lemon yellow (1/5) and a more orangey yellow (4/5) in 10% of dry weight solution and I could not be happier with the results. The photos kinda mess with it, it’s not that orange. It’s more of a really warm, spicy yellow. And it’s the first time I got results that good, since my (or our, as a class) tests before have failed somewhat, losing most of the colour in rinse. But the secret just seemed to be to keep that temperature on the upper limits of the given range, which was between 50 to 60 degrees Celsius.

Or actually, 50 degrees, do not pass 60 was a more accurate wording of our instructions. Which is why we’ve been careful to keep the bath temperature at exact 50 as much as possible. I’m now starting to think that’s a mistake. A HUGE mistake. Don’t do that. Try to aim at 55 degrees Celsius. Keep it around that.

Next thing is the inner lining fabric, the one that should make the coat easy to put on and add some extra wind break. I was hesitating on this a lot since I don’t want to mess my cotton coat with some polyester lining fabric. And also, fabric EXPENSIVE so I would rather just go without. Luckily someone recommended Kässä Kirppu just in time.

(This is Finland only thing so ignore this paragraph unless you’re from here:) Second hand crafts supplies, with affordable prices. In practice, second hand here means leftovers or stuff you never used, not like... used fabric and yarn. So unused but cheaper than new. I’m not yet super sure how it works but basically, for a provision, you can send your stuff to them to sell. They seems to take professional photos of it, too. And you can buy all that stuff through them so no need to manage multiple sellers for each product. Might be more expensive than your local flea market but also, easier to browse. Give it a look https://kassakirppu.fi/

ANYWAYS, they sent me my shining new viscose satin fabric today. Viscose or Rayon is a semi-synthetic fabric, made of a natural material, cellulose, but going through some major processing on the way, making it also synthetic. But when it comes to qualities like dyeing, it’s natural. And viscose satin sure does not get caught on every molecule of your being like synthetic satin does. Most of the clothes I own are either cotton or viscose so it’s a good everyday fabric, imo. More expensive but also more modern and environmentally friendly semi-synthetics are Lyocell and Cupro, so if you have the money, look into those. I don’t so yeah, onwards.

My camera actually decided to be an ass today on everything (or it just hates yellow) so whereas my dye bath pics came out too orange, the satin pics came out way pale. The one above is already cranked up to 100 on both colour temp and saturation, and it’s not yet right. Not on my screen at least.

THIS is a more accurate representation of what an absolute easter yellow thing this fabric is. It’s just YELLOW.

So yeah anyways, now a new decision is ahead of me. Should I keep the YELLOW fabric as it is, since it would be the inside lining and kinda like a happy “whaddya buying?” effect, or should I dye it to tone it down, just a notch. It definitely doesn’t match the yarn I have, any of it. But also, does it need to? It’s yellow, so what???

Also, I definitely have more of this satin than I have the cotton so I might have to patch in in some places anyways.

[celaenaeiln]

At the dining table for breakfast

Jason: Heh.

Jason: Hahahaha.

Jason: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Bruce: *raising the newspaper up higher*

Alfred: *placidly pouring coffee into Bruce’s mug* Did something interesting happen, Master Jason?

Jason: Alfred, I am about to have the perfect surprise for that bony a-Tim. The perfect surprise for Tim.

Alfred: *putting away the bar of soap he pulled out of nowhere* Is that so? Please do be careful not to make a mess here. The waxing was just done in the dining room.

Jason: No problem, in fact-

Tim: *entering sluggishly*

Jason: In fact…in…fact…Megamind, what are you doing here?

Tim: ……..hm?

Jason: What are you doing here?

Tim: eating??

Jason: You-why are you coming from the right side bathroom-weren’t you going to use the upstairs one on the left?

Tim: oh. Dick was already in it so I decided to use the other one.

Jason: what.

Tim: what.

Jason: No. Hahahahaha. You’re joking…nononono-god, Tim, WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID?

Tim: ????????

Jason: You-

Dick’s voice thundering from a floor away: JASON!!!!

Jason: *staring blankly then running forward and smacking Tim on the head* It’s all your fault!

Tim who hasn’t slept or had coffee or know why something he doesn’t know about is his fault: ???? WHAT DID I DO?!

Jason: *running past and leaping out the window* See you later, losers. Bye, Alf.

Disappearing seconds before a blur of wet skin, white towel, and neon pink hair rushes past and follows him out the window.

Tim:

Bruce:

Tim: ……Did you have breakfast yet?

Bruce: …….Hrmgh.

Alfred: *tutting* I just had the floors done. Master Bruce, would you mind redoing them? I’m afraid I must catch the mailman before he gives treats to Titus again. He’s leaving crumbs all over the entrance.

Bruce: What about Ti-

Bruce: *glancing back to see a lone leaf float in and drop slowly to the ground*

Bruce: ………

[loadingbones]

Laurence but he’s also in Hades 👏🏻

[joehills]

I dunno why everyone thinks I’m talking about some Anime Expo problem instead of a local convention problem.

[canisalbus]

For how much Machete is described by others as off-putting, he really is a beautiful dog. Does Vasco ever tell him so? That his eyes make him look earnest, his fur the most comforting shade of white like cream, the way his ears catch light like stained glass? If someone doesn't tell him so, he'd forever think he was ugliest duckling

I think Vasco definitely tries, sincerely and often, but Machete is very reluctant to accept compliments and positive feedback. Especially if it's about something as personal and innate as his looks.

[handweavers]

my mother has asked me to ask “that weaver friend of yours” lol — do you have experience dyeing linen? what does the process look like for natural vs synthetic dyes?

happy to be that weaver friend of yours 🥰❤️ dyeing linen is basically the same as dyeing cotton or any other cellulose fiber, so any synthetic dye that works for cotton will also work for linen. a professional grade fiber reactive dye like procion mx or dharma's procion (here) dyes cellulose fiber without heat, and the process is quick and painless. it just involves a large bucket, water, the dye powder and the cloth you wish to dye. i have little experience with rit dye so i'm not sure if you'd need heat for that, but procion dye is higher quality, comes in a lot more colours than rit, and a 2oz container is like $2 usd and goes a long way

the natural dye process for linen takes a lot longer than the procion dye process and requires several steps. cellulose fibers really don't like to take dyes so you basically have to do a bunch of alchemy to convince it to do what you want (compared to protein fibers like wool and silk which love dyes and only need some gentle nudges)

naturally dyeing linen depends on the dye you'd wish to use, but the process is essentially: scouring, mordanting, and dyeing. it's really important that you scour linen especially because it contains a lot of pectins that prevent dye from penetrating the fiber, so a harsh scouring is best (ie. washing it with hot water and ph neutral soap, even to the point of boiling the cloth. linen can take a lot of heat and is better for it, cotton is more sensitive) you'll probably have to do this before dyeing it with the synthetic dye too for best results

most natural dyes require that you mordant the cloth before dyeing. some dyes don't require a mordant (indigo is the big one, but if you're working with onion skins or other materials that contain tannins this is also true. however mordanting the cloth before dyeing with tannins or even mordanting with tannins is still recommended for better colour performance long-term unless you're working with indigo in which case using a mordant can actually cause problems) but if you're unsure, assume that you need to apply a mordant. you essentially have to simmer the cloth in a hot pot with either a material that contains tannins (tannic acid), a natural bio-accumulator of aluminum (symplocos), or use a metal salt (alum acetate is best for cellulose, but iron and copper salts can also be used. the metal salts route requires more safety precautions esp if you use copper salt, you can't dump that down the drain) your choice of mordant impacts the final colour with different mordants shifting the chemical reaction that happens in the cloth when you dye it

with cotton and linen, after you use the mordant you need to use either a chalk or wheat bran bath to remove excess mordant from the cloth, esp if you use alum acetate, otherwise it can leave a whitish cast over the cloth and also impede dyeing lol. wheat bran baths tend to cause a warmer tone to the final dyed cloth, chalk baths cause a cooler tone. i only use wheat bran baths bc i prefer the warmth and i get the bran cheaply at my local punjabi grocer

only then can you dye the cloth, again unless you're working with a dye like coffee or tea or onion skins OR indigo. linen really doesn't like to take natural dyes unless you do all the above steps, it's stubborn. the dye process itself depends on what dye you use and you can do stuff like solar dyeing if you don't want to simmer it in a pot on a stove. if you plan to go the natural dye route lmk and i can send you some scans of a book i have that contains precise instructions for preparing linen for dyeing

[delta-piscium]

time and time again i’ve been proven wrong yet i continue to live under the false assumption that everyone shares my same references and time and time again i have suffered for it (casually mentioned miku binder thomas jefferson to my brother, then in depth explained miku binder thomas jefferson to my brother)

[papa-evershed]

Rob James-Collier | Fate: The Winx Saga

[hairtusk]

After much soul-searching (and a recommendation from jorina <3) i think i'm going to book in at the salon to get this colour done..... if i like it I'll go back in a month to get highlights, if i don't i'll just box dye it back to my old colour. no harm no foul.

[foldingfittedsheets]

Eeee! Some lovely person sent us the bath pillow! I cannot wait to be able to wet my hair, I’ve wanted one for years and just never felt it was urgent enough to bother but we’re gonna get our soak onnnn. Thank you!

[lexicals]

Me when the wool I'm dyeing actually turns the colour the instructions said it would

[kingcunny]

paddy i love you. dont piss me off. you know damn well mentioning hotd wigs in the same sentence as danys wigs is an insult

[loadingbones]

Days 1-5: Bloodbath 🍷✨

Prompt list by me, it’s on my page if you’d like to use it! :)

[bakingmoomins]

i just tried to do my first batch of hand dyed yarn and i am Not Sure how I feel about it