When I am Old, I Shall Wear a Purple Dress

Remember this photo from last summer?  I finally chose a purple swatch, mixed up a batch of the colors and dyed this simple sun dress.

My dye is getting old, so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to get.  Lovely purple ...

 This is in the washing machine after the final rinse-out.

 It was a much lighter tint after it dried.

Here's a detail of some of the embroidery, which I knew would probably dye to different colors, being a different material content.

 Another shot of the embroidery.

 Detail of the purple I wound up with in the final dress.

I love the texture you get from this technique -- like clouds, or ever-changing skies.

 

The texture is from the "scrumble" technique, where you scrumble (This may be a combination of crunch and scramble?) the wet soda-soaked fabric into your dye pot, then pour just the right amount of dye concentrate over the top.  Careful not to mix it in too much, or you'll lose the patterning.

I started with Sky Blue (8 parts) and Boysenberry (2 parts) to get this lovely purple that broke into some beautiful blues.  Makes me want to try this as an ice dye to see how the colors will "break."

In the photo at the top of the post, I used my Candiotic Table of reference values.  Colors dyes from 3 primaries.  The purple I chose in this set is the 2nd one up on the diagonal--sort of at "rib" level on the dress.  It's pretty close -- especially when it was still wet.   This dress was probably not meant for dying, so it likely had some bleach or fixatives in it that prevented the dye from coloring it as well as I'd hoped -- or blame it on old dye again.  I'm still happy with the results.

The index card shows some of my calculations, the weight of the fabric, how much dye I need of the primaries to make the particular color I wanted.  Candy has a wonderful calculator that does all the math for you.  Her class was so worth it!   I also like to put a dollop of the resulting color on the card--for future reference-- the purple blotch.

Dharma Blues (and Greens and Purples)

My friend, Lynda and I went in on a big Dharma order. Together, we ordered several 8-oz. jars of the basic mixing colors. By splitting these ourselves, (we each get 4-oz), we figure we're getting 4-oz for the 2-oz price. This way, we also split the shipping costs as well. $15 shipping looks a lot better than $30!

Along with the new dyes, I also stocked up on fabric to dye, including 2 "blank" dresses.

On Friday, I thought I had a plan for both of them, but on Saturday, I felt struck with "dyer's block:" so many colors--so many options. I wanted these dresses to come out as something I'd actually be comfortable wearing, not mud.

I finally decided on some colors : Teal Blue, Leaf Green, and Purple squirted onto a "lumpy pancake" crinkle rayon dress that had been soaked in soda ash water :







Here's the 2nd dress in Teal Blue and Sky Blue :


I thought I'd have to do some alterations on these dresses, they were just a little too big before I washed and dyed them. They shrank to just about the right size. Hurray! Would you believe this long dress is easy to bike in?

Yeah--I know my parents are saying I'm some kind of Flower Child from the 60s.