Fabric Dyeing Experiment

Following the 'success' of my Baxters beetroot pickle juice dye effort and many Floss Tube videos where lovely folks shared an interest in dyeing their own fabric base for stitching, I decided to experiment a little further.  In search of various shades of blue aida and even weave I bought some vintage blue Dylon and spend an hour playing with fabric oddments in my kitchen.

I soaked a variety of scrappy pieces of aida and even weave in a roasting tray dye bath.  Some for 15 mins, some for 30 mins, some for 45 mins and a final few for 1 hour.  All very scientific (if you exclude the fact I forgot to dye a 'control' piece of the exact same fabric in each batch).

Here are my results.

I found it quite interesting to see how the different weaves and counts of fabric accepted the dye.  I mean, there wasn't much difference between the aida left for 15 mins (far left) and that left for 60 mins (far right).  However, you can see that some of the creamier base fabrics accepted the dye to take on more of a duck-egg hue (central fabrics shown above).

My favourite piece was some 25 count even weave which dyed unevenly.  Of course, as soon as it had dried out, I couldn't wait to put some stitches in it!

I've been missing my mum  dreadfully over the past number of weeks, so I chose this beautiful free Mother's Day design from Jacob de Graff at Modern Folk Embroidery in her memory.  I'm using DMC variegated thread no 48.  I love how it is stitching up on the slight uneven dye of the fabric.  

My little dye experiment was a lot of fun so I might try some other shades of Dylon one day soon.  Watch this space!