More fabric dyeing

The orange fabrics from yesterday are in their second washing as I write. I rinsed them in the sink and used Synthrapol and a Color Catcher in the washer, but the Color Catcher was bright orange so I’m giving them another wash with Synthrapol to make sure I get all the color out. They are not nearly as pale as I thought they would be. If I do another batch I’ll increase the yellow a lot and skimp on the red. They’re still gorgeous though. I can’t wait to take pics.

The second batch of fabric is curing right now. For this recipe I chose cobalt blue and lemon yellow. To make the dye concentrate I used 1 cup water and 2 teaspoons of blue dye powder in one container and 1 cup water and 3 teaspoons yellow dye powder in another container. I added 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of extra water to each container because I wanted to be sure I had enough concentrate. As it turns out I had some left over, so you may want to plan for that and have extra fabric prepared just in case if you do the same.

I used ratios given in Dyeing to Quilt, but I had some dye left over. I used an extra 3/4 teaspoon of yellow dye in all the solutions except #5 (which was a one to one ratio of blue and yellow). I used the rest of the blue and the small amount of yellow in a separate container and dyed one of my husband’s old T-shirts since I’ve run out of fabric.

Here are the ratios of blue to yellow I used for a 9-step gradation.

Tbsp = tablespoon and tsp = teaspoon. Remember that these are the ratios given in the book. I added an extra 3/4 tsp of yellow to all containers except #5.

1. 3 Tbsp + 1 tsp blue to 2 tsp yellow
2. 3 Tbsp blue to 1 Tbsp yellow
3. 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp blue to 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp yellow
4. 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp blue to 1 Tbsp + 2 tsp yellow
5. 2 Tbsp blue to 2 Tbsp yellow
6. 1 Tbsp + 2 tsp blue to 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp yellow
7. 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp blue to 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp yellow
8. 1 Tbsp blue to 3 Tbsp yellow
9. 2 tsp blue to 3 Tbsp + 1 tsp yellow

I’ll post pictures as soon as I can!