Category: Fabric Dyeing

Aging Fabric

1/15/2016

It's been a while since I posted here. With the holidays and my part time job, the time has just seemed to run away from me.

I completed one project during the holidays for a commission that I'll share with you. I was asked by a friend to create fabric that looks like aged paper. She wanted it to cover a bulletin board for most of the year. Fabric works perfectly for this type of project since it is more durable than paper and can be manipulated to look like old paper.

This image was my inspiration piece. I was trying to create fabric that looked similar.

I started with white cotton and unevenly dyed the fabric a pale yellow tan color.

To make the fabric look even more aged, I dipped it in very diluted brown fabric paint, squeezed out the excess, and laid it out to dry scrunched up. I added more paint over the tops of the peaks, to create some darker stained areas. As the fabric drys the paint pools in areas and creates a cracked look that makes it look stained and old.

Wet Fabric

After it dried

The next step was to create a dark boarder all the way around with more fabric paint.

The border is wet here

Here the border is dry

I sent it off to my friend and she put it up on the bulletin board. I can imagine all kinds of uses for this kind of fabric. It was a fun project to work on and it was nice to spend some time manipulating fabric again.

Here is the fabric being put to its intended use.

Have a great weekend everyone. I'll try to share more often. My mind is bursting with new ideas just waiting to come into being.
Janelle

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Summer of Color Red Red Metallic

7/5/2015

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This week on summer of color we had to use red, red, plus a metallic. Go here to get a look at all the other amazing art. I didn't have any red fabric so I decided to dye some. I covered a piece of cotton with a lighter pink red. Then I added some fake writing over the top in both directions with a darker fire red. I use thickened dye that is the consistency of honey and a syringe with a thin needle point to do the writing. After that was cured and washed out I added a design in gold paint with a fine line bottle.

I quilted a pattern of rectangles and triangles and added some gold and red buttons for accents.

I love the fabric that I created and still have more of that. I will be using it again at some point. I like the tone on tone look and want to created more fabric like that again too.
Have a great week,
Janelle

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Silk Painting

5/7/2015

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It has been really busy here the last two weeks. Last week I spent two days in a silk painting workshop with Nancy McKay. It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot about silk painting. I would recommend that anyone who has an interest take a class with Nancy.

This week my oldest daughter came home from her university for a few days and my youngest celebrated his birthday. Around all this activity my family was dealing with colds and tummy bugs too. All in all I have had two great weeks and hope to continue on with a lovely spring season.

We used crepe de chine 12mm that had been treated with sizing to better control the flow of the dyes. We used H. Dupont Dyes which bond to the silk fiber when they are steam set. The colors are beautiful and easy to use. Here is one place that you can buy these dyes: http://www.dharmatrading.com/dyes/dupont-silk-dyes-french-silk-dyes.html

This first piece was the practice piece that I did to get used to the process and how the dyes would work.

In this workshop we drew our sketch onto the silk and then painted it. This girl is the first one that I painted. I love making whimsy style girls. Now I want to stitch on top of her to add texture and depth and to modify areas that I don't like. I love how the stitching really adds to a textile piece.

I also want to add stitching to this sunflower.

We dyed a silk scarf in class as well and steam set the dye in the microwave. This was a shibori style that was wrapped and tied with a string to create a resist. I love these colors and the process. I could happily make many more of these scarfs.

Textiles add so much to our daily lives. I love manipulating fabric to create beautiful items and make the environment even more beautiful. I hope that you too appreciate the beauty of textiles. Have a wonderful end to the week.
Janelle

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Cotton Dyeing

2/27/2015

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I want to share the rest of the dyed pieces of cotton that I have made this winter.

The first few are all dyed with very little water, and normal temperatures. The colors come out much more intense. The patterning comes from crinkling the fabric into a loose pile. The fabric was dyed with the exact dye batch that I used for the snow dyed pieces I shared earlier.

Please excuse the wrinkles, my ironing board doesn't work very well. I really need to get a custom ironing surface designed for fabric rather than clothing.

The next pieces of fabrics were snow dyed with single colors of dye. I used colors that were mixes rather than just primary. I wanted to see how the colors would come out in the cold conditions. The dyes that are mixes contain more than one single color of dye and different dye colors strike at different times during the process. I wanted to see how many colors from the mix would show up on the fabric. Long explanation over: enjoy seeing these four pieces of snow dyed cotton.

Now I get the fun of using these fabrics in fiber art. I hope that you have a great weekend.
Janelle

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Dyeing to Color Fabric!

9/11/2014

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Dyed Cotton

Are you a quilter, crafter or an artist who loves hand-dyed fabrics, but doesn’t know how to dye your own fabric? Do you want to learn how to dye cotton fabric with fiber reactive dyes? This method of dyeing produces brilliant colors that bond to the fibers and don’t wash out over time. We will be dyeing four fat quarters during this workshop that are yours to keep. I’ll teach you the entire process, from how to choose and prepare your fabric through washing it out. I will be teaching the low water immersion method that produces beautiful variations on the fabric. I am also going to teach how to paint dye on fabric, which produces a completely different look. On the last workshop day you will learn how to add designs to your fabric with paint using a variety of methods, such as stenciling. These fabrics can be used to make unique quilts and other textile art and crafts.

Dyed Cotton

Instructor: Janelle Marks
3 Saturdays: October 11, 18, 25
10 am – 1 pm Ella Sharp Museum Jackson, MI
Cost $96 / Member $75

Learn to color fabric using different techniques such as low water immersion dying and painting dye onto fabric, then add surface designs with mark making tools. Use your custom designed fabric at home in your quilting, clothing, or other textile crafts! In addition to fabric, cotton yarns may be dyed. Supply list provided. You can go here to find out more information: http://ellasharpmuseum.org/?page_id=643

Janelle Marks is a textile and mixed media artist and the owner of Hands and Harts. She has a B.S. degree in Textile and Apparel Studies with a design emphasis from Western Michigan University. During college Janelle started dyeing garments and fabric which turned into an artistic love and a bit of an obsession. She has been practicing fabric dyeing for nine years. Janelle also dyes ribbons, threads, lace, and any other natural fibers that she comes across. In the last several years Janelle has taken up art quilting where she uses her uniquely created fabrics, threads, and ribbons. She uses her hand-dyed fabric in her quilts, crafts, wearable art, and home goods as well.

Painted with Dyes

Dyed Cotton

Dyed and Printed Table Runner.

Rayon Crinkle Ribbon

Perle Cotton Thread

I would love to see you at my workshop. I hope you can sign up today.
Janelle

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Hand Dyed Fabric

7/24/2014

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I have been dyeing a lot of fabric this summer. Summer is a great time to get a lot of fabric prepared to use the rest of the year. I enjoy dyeing fabric one color and multicolored. I like to have a well stocked stash so that I have the fabric I need for any textile project I want to make. Here are some examples of pieces I have been dyeing this summer. I love to have fabric that is imbued with the essence of summer.

This fall I will be teaching a dyeing workshop locally. Keep watch for details coming up if you are interested in designing custom fabric.

I am also going to give away a mini quilt on my Facebook page soon. If you would like to have a chance at that please like my page and stay tuned for the details. Click here.

Have a great weekend,
Janelle

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T-Shirts for the Summer

3/20/2014

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A couple of weeks ago I dyed a lot of fabric and trims. I had a couple of t-shirts and a baby bunting laying around that were ready to dye, so I decided to dye them too.

T-shirt

Baby Bunting

T-shirt

After they were dyed I thought that it would be fun to add some stenciling and make these fun to wear. Now, when I know someone who has a baby girl, I have a gift to give that will be all ready to go. I also have a couple of colorful t-shirts to wear when it finally gets warm where I live.

I stenciled Tam's Butterfly Wings and Flower Garden onto the baby bunting. These were perfect for a sweet baby girl.

I used the Tumbling Pods stencil to add a design across the pink and blue t-shirt. I stenciled with white fabric paint. I love how the white design shows off the colors.

I added more layers to the last t-shirt. I started with the Apparatus stencil and black paint. I made a strip across the shirt and feathered out the black paint along the edges.

I added some more stenciling using black paint along one side.

After these layers dried I used a script stamp and white paint to add some visual texture.

To finish off this design I used a hand carved flower stamp to add some pink flowers in the swirls.

I hope you enjoyed my mini tutorial and have a great week.
Janelle

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Adventures in Fabric Dyeing

3/13/2014

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Last week my daughter and I dyed a lot of fabric all at the same time. I like to make stockpiles of fabric that I can use for a long time to create textile art. Since it is still really snowy where I live, I snow dyed some of the fabric. Snow dyeing creates wonderful patterns on the fabric and the colors end up being more pastel too. I dyed cotton fabric and cheesecloth using snow dyeing. I also dyed silk fabric, silk and rayon ribbon, lace, and thread. I chose some colorways and used the same ones to dye a variety of materials. That way I have coordinating supplies to use.

I started out with a pile of stuff to dye.

I first mix up all the dyes with the chemicals that I want to use this time.

Here I have all my dyes mixed and in their own bottles.

Before I can dye the fabric I soak each piece in a mixture of soda ash and water. The soda ash allows the dye to bond to the fibers and become permanent. Then I loosely scrunch up each piece that I am dyeing. You can use many types of folds, but here I didn't fold the fabric. I wanted a more organic pattern this time. For the snow dyeing I placed the fabric on a screen over a tub, so that the melted snow and dye don't pool around the fabric. I placed the regularly dyed items in containers with lids.

My daughter brought in the snow and piled it on top of the fabric until each pile was covered. Then I squirted the dye onto the snow. I used three colors on each pile. I wear old clothes and gloves because the dye will stain everything. I cover the other pieces the same way, minus the snow.

Here are all the snow piles with dye on top. I cover these with old plastic bags and let them sit overnight.

Here are all the fabric piles the next morning before I rinsed off the extra dye.

This is the rest of the stuff that I dyed sitting in the tubs soaking to get off all the extra dye. I rinse everything with cool water and then I soak them in cool water. Then I do the same thing with hot water and a detergent to get off all the extra dye. The dye does bond to the fiber, but there is always more dye than could bond that has to be washed off. It takes several wash cycles to get the fabric all washed out. The more delicate fibers I hand wash. I try and use as little water as I can, so that I'm not wasting water at all. The soaking helps to get the dye out without having to keep the fabric under running water the whole time.

Here is all the snow dyed cotton and cheesecloth from this round of dyeing. I hadn't ironed the fabric yet in these pictures. Some of the pieces came out really pale, so I may over-dye them to get more color into the fabric.

Here is all the silk fabric and ribbons that I dyed. Since I didn't use snow on top of these the colors came out a little more vibrant.

Here are all the threads, laces, and rayon ribbons that I dyed.

I hope that I didn't bore you too much with my dyeing post. I love fabric dyeing. Seeing how each piece turns out when it is all washed is exciting to me. If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them. Keep watching to see when these pieces turn up in my textile art.
Thanks,
Janelle

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Hands and Harts Blog

Aging Fabric

Summer of Color Red Red Metallic

Silk Painting

Cotton Dyeing

Dyeing to Color Fabric!

Hand Dyed Fabric

T-Shirts for the Summer

Adventures in Fabric Dyeing

Serenity Cabin

Janelle Marks

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