Hand dyed fabric

Here's my (current) method. Everyone has their own, and if it works for you, it's right!

I do a QUICK rinse of the fabric. I'm blessed with a deep sink next to my washer, but you could use a bucket if needed. The purpose of this is just to get the excess dye out -- I'm talking a three second rinse. In a bucket I'd just dump it in, swish once, and wring it out. I have a top loader, so I turn on the machine to fill while I'm doing the three second rinse, and start dumping in the fabric as I'm rinsing. I can't see why that wouldn't work with a front loader -- just start the machine immediately after you dump in the fabric.

I do three washes in the machine. The first two are cold with no synthrapol -- they are just doing all the hard work of rinsing for me. The last wash is hot with synthrapol (VERY little -- I don't measure, but I guess I use about a teaspoon for a load of 10 yards). The only trick is to not let the wet fabric sit between washes. I leave the laundry room door open and go play in my sewing room across the hall so I can hear the washer stop. As long as I do this I never have backstaining, even when I do rainbow yardage.

If you have soap or hard water deposits in your machine, they may take on a little color but they never seem to affect future loads. At my house it has the added benefit of annoying DH so he scrubs out the machine for me. *evil grin*

Nah, I never post here anymore. ;-)

Glad to answer specific questions, but I didn't really see any when the thread started.

Thank you all for your replies!! I just wanted to see what some hand-dyed fabric looked like, and y'all have shared your beautiful work, as usual. Thanks so much.

Who? Kathy Who?? Applebaum? Never heard of her! PAT

zzzzzzz wrote:

Too bad you dropped the Nats -- you'd have been getting lots of squares with her name on them after they spanked the Cubs a couple of weeks ago. :-o