Want to dye or bleach wool challis

I would do about a ton of research first. There has to be a safe way to get the color out, but I am not sure bleach would be it. Bleaching wool or silk is not something I would really consider. Chlorine + protien = unhappy protien You know what a swimming pool can do to your hair, multiply that by a LOT and you get an idea of what bleach is going to do to your wool.

Here is the page at Dharma about color discharging. They specificly say not to use bleach on silk or wool, and do have an altenative, thiourea dioxide. Although it is entirely possible that it won't work on commercially dyed fabric.

I have dyed wool, though not a lot, it is a hot process like silk. You use the same dyes in fact. The main things are to stir it only as much as you have to, bring it to heat gradually, and let it cool in the dyepot before you rinse. Excessive agitation and temperature shock are bad.

Were I you I would be looking at changeing red to orange, blue to violet, altering shades, etc. There is enough color variation in available dyes to let you mess about quite a bit with just changeing colors.

You could try some of the silk paints on it if you just can't do dying. Silk paints are like dye, they are not opaque, they spread on the fabric like dye will, and they do not alter the hand of the fabric. You probably wouldn't want to mess with steaming it, it takes hours with silk, I shudder to think how long wool would take, but you could try the brush on liquid setting agents. Or you could try one of the dry heat set kind. The dry heat ones are usually set by ironing, but I have taken to baking my monster silk circles in the oven. Heat setting a nine foot diameter silk painting with an iron takes _forever_. So I roll them up in newsprint and curl them up like I was going to steam them on top of the stove and bake them at 250F for an hour. I see no reason why it wouldn't work for yardage. Though with wool I would put it in the oven then turn the heat on, then turn the heat off an hour after I put it in, and let it cool before taking it out. At the very least you should be able to get hand dye or tie dye looking results with it.

HTH

NightMist

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Thanks Nightmist, you are so quick and helpful with that ton of advice. Just what I thought - alot of work dyeing fabrics, to me, like auto repairs - too dirty and time consuming LOL. However, I shall study your reply and decide where to go from here. It really is a subject that takes time, learning, confidence and commitment to master. I did a 2 day course last Feb at a quilt convention just dyeing white cotton FQ. I was pleased with the results but didn't take to the messy work!! I might just have to hunt down some more fabric colours and use quilting threads to give a visual variation. Again, many thanks, Bronnie

Bronnie, I had forgotten the word 'challis'. Way back in my memory, it seems like challis was something we used for newborn shirts and blankets. They were quite washable although hot water and hot dryer were not acceptable. I remember the challis as being soft and gently warm. Perhaps you could get some white challis and use the silk paint. There's a way. Sounds like such a wonderful idea. Polly

Hi Polly, This wool challis that I have bought took me back to my earlier working days in the 1980's in a big city and a cooler climate. It made beautiful suitings. I made silk blouses to match. Those were the [elegant] days!

Today I bought half a metre to play with first. Will look to see how it quilts up using different threads. On a strip 2inches wide I on the grain I fringed it. Looks great. I was thinking of a black + another color background in offset vertical strips of uneven lengths on the bottom where I could fringe each strip. Oh, wait until I make the *damn" quilt and I'll post pix . Cheers Bron

Thanks Pati, think I will keep away from the bleach bottle. Bron