Turns out most things are better blue. I got an indigo kit and promptly fell down a rabbit hole of blue. So many things ended up in the dye pot, from brand new tea towels destined for christmas presents, to stained hand-me-downs, to underwear? Yes, anything you can think of ended up blue. So much fun!
tea towels! the kids helped to tie these and supervised the dipping
I got super into the freedom of not having to pretreat in any way, besides getting them wet, and I forgot about that with the second batch anyway. Plus you can dye cotton, silk, and wool with a single method. No switching mordants, no heat. Piece of cake.
The kids helped me tie these towels and were really into helping. The problem is that we do not have rubber gloves that fit their small hands, so they couldn't help with the dunking. But since I did it outside, they just went to play and came back to check periodically. I really enjoyed talking to the almost-6-year-old about oxidation and how it turns from green to blue, he really got that.
new undies and overdyed silk remnants. Love how this silk turned pale blue. It was already dyed pink, but it was too pink, if you know what I mean. Now, I'm in love.
Kiddo needed new underwear. I got these undies at target and now they are so cool! I can't make all of the things and underwear is not something I'm comfortable thrifting. Now we have interesting underwear without superheroes. Check out how they just run the serger thread off the side of the underwear and leave it hanging out there. Nice, ready to wear.
Excessively studly gentleman with shibori dyed tee shirt! Facial expression does not indicate level of satisfaction, much.
I'm just so tickled with how everything turned out. My husband was tossing a few undershirts that had gotten pretty dingy. I rescued them for exactly this type of thing. Now I can torture him with hand dyed garments for free! Does he like it: "yeah . . . it's not really my style though." Maybe a grey overdye to tone it down a bit? I have another shibori experiment in mind to win him over.
more shibori, including a flannel receiving blanket in the middle.
There were a couple of casualties. The prints that I overdyed did not turn out. I thought I would have the same lovely print, but with a blue cast to it. Nope, the print turned all muddy and hard to make out. Lesson learned. Items that were a solid base color or a more organic dye pattern turned out great, so stick with those.
One of my favorites is the dress in the first picture. It's a shibori method that I'm sure I didn't invent, but I did devise myself based on the method where you wrap the fabric around a pole and tie. I accordion folded first to get the chevron/herringbone effect and I really like how that turned out. That one will be for sale once I get the shop going. I'll definitely be experimenting with that shibori style more too. This was my first foray into the wonderful world of indigo, but a few more are already planned.