See Parts 1 and 2 for the story up until now.
Here are the results of the test that Melissa from Fabric Dyeing 101 recommended in order to isolate and remedy the problem I seem to be having with results. It appears that the yellow wasn't contributing enough and the fuschia was overpowering everything else.So I tried putting in a little more golden yellow to see if that would "normalize" the colors suitable for skin tones. I also tried a white muslin to start with. The aurora takes the colors so well and deepens them--which is GREAT for landscape colors, but not so great for what I'm after here ... In the test above, the small swatches are Aurora Muslin.
Still too green for skin tones. I might blame the Cotton Black being too green ... except not all the greens had black in it ...Next I tried backing off on the Fuschia (I've got enough pink-ish fat quarters by now!) and doubling the yellow. These look more like what I'm after, but they look too washed out and lack vibrancy :
The Dyeing season is just about over for me now. I'm giving up on this project. Dyeing is a summer activity. When it's too hot to be in my sewing room upstairs, I retreat to the basement where it's cool and dark ...
I guess the lesson here is Hand dyeing is great if you're not expecting anything in particular. I have so many greens now, I'd better start making some tress!
3 comments:
I'm sorry that you aren't getting quite the results that you are looking for yet but you still have some beautiful fabrics there! Too bad you have to give up for the winter too. I did a little dyeing today and forgot to put your swatches in! They are in the middle of my dye takbe now so that I don't forget the next time!
I dunno, attempt 4 looks pretty good on screen. Are you going to bring them to CinC for show and tell?
Katy
I have had trouble too mixing skin tones using Melissa's suggestions. I cut the formula's down to 1/8 strength. This was too enable me to dye fat eighth's (198 square inch) fabric.
For #1 I used 1/64 tsp Chino + 1.128tsp Fuchsia + a trace of yellow to 250 ml of water. The color came out way to pink. I am going to increase the water next time to see if that will help
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