adventures with tumeric.

Sunday 10 July 2011

Image via Studded Youth.
Ever since I came across Jaquelyn from lark + linen's blog post about diy home fabric dying, I've been hankering to turn my kitchen into a laboratory of coloured pots, bubbling with textiles. Given that I already love sewing, the idea of dying my own textiles is really exciting. It takes the notion of creating bespoke clothing to a whole new level.
First trial, was fabric dying with tumeric. It was so much fun! Here are some images of the process:
Step 1. I filled a big pot with hot water and 1/2 cup salt and dropped the fabric in. I brought it to the boil and simmered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. You're meant to use a ceramic pot because metals can effect the colour, but I couldn't get my hands on one. You also should use a spare pot, not one you use for food.
Step 2. 15 minutes before the fabric was ready, I mixed 8 cups of water with 50g of tumeric and let simmer.
Step 3. I strained the salt water out of the fabric, squeezed out the excess moisture and dumped the wet fabric in with the tumeric mix. I did this in the laundry trough so that the fabric had more room to move. I stirred the fabric occasionally to get an even colour. I left it in the mix for about 45minutes.
Step 4. I rinsed the fabric until it was virtually clear and then hung to dry.
Step 5. I sewed the dress together. I cut the fabric before I put it in the pot to reduce the amount of fabric to dye. I bought thread to match after dying.

Unfortunately, today is tragically dreary and the thought of wearing this sunny dress seems wildly inappropriate. I couldn't even take my grey top off for the sake of the photos. So I'm afraid this will have to sit in storage until later in the year. Next time I might try dying some blacks and browns.

5 comments:

  1. have you tried washing the dress yet? just wondering how colourfast your dye is?

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  2. No, not yet. Apparently tumeric isn't super colourfast so I do expect it will fade a little. It should be easy enough to dump back in a tumeric bath to freshen the colour, if needed. Having said that, bright yellow goes pretty far outside my grey/black uniform so not sure how many times I'll be needing to wash it!

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  3. ahh I'm so happy you did this! It looks AMAZING. Now I'm less nervous to test it out myself

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  4. I LOVE the colour and especially the way you've done it! Goooorgeous! Vx

    ReplyDelete
  5. I LOVE the colour and especially the way you've done it! Goooorgeous! Vx

    ReplyDelete

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