Purple Rules

This year’s hand dyeing season ended with a plethora of purple.  There was some red-orange thrown in, but three shades of purple – red/purple, purple/purple, and blue/purple – ruled.  It’s funny that when I began dyeing I carefully followed recipes and instructions, but I’m now at the point where I have more success just scrunching cloth into a container and pouring dye on top. My shibori efforts just didn’t work out, so they’re back on the to-be-dyed pile. Or possibly I’ll use them in some sort of low volume project.

Maybe I should call this piece Tequila Sunrise. I overdyed the blue/purple and hot pink on the orange.
Another overdye on orange with blue/purple sprayed on and left to drip.  I inadvertently left this in the sun until the cloth dried, so the color didn’t take very well.  (You need to keep the cloth wet so the dye can set.)

This session I dyed more pieces of my mother-in-law’s old damask tablecloths, leftover bits of gray percale sheet, and some printed white on white fabric from a friend of a friend.  I dearly love the sumptuous feel of cotton sateen fabric but have yet to purchase any for dyeing. The dyed damask pieces press up beautifully and have a lovely sheen.

Both sides of the white on white fabric after dyeing.  The blue dye in the mix seems to have split out to create a bluish background.I like the frost on the window effect that turned up on this purple/purple piece.

My friend and I had hoped to concoct periwinkle dye, but the recipes we found called for MX procion dye colors we didn’t have.  Maybe next year.  At any rate, the temperatures are dipping too low for our mostly outdoor dyeing (75 degrees is considered good for getting dye to set), so we’re packing up the dye supplies until next year.

I have all winter to play with the yards of fabric I’ve dyed. I’m already using some purple cloth for a binding, and have vague notions of a curvy improv piece.