I’M DYING—

[think of this list—as i hope you think of most instructions in life—as more of a guide than concrete law. experimentation is key! i am but a humble servant improvising my way thru this world]

Prep yo Fabrix

Wash [aka “scour”] fabric to remove any pretreatments or oils

• for this step I used homemade soda ash. if you have some on hand, great! if not, start here

some mordants you can add right in the dye bath instead of pre-soaking [like vinegar, which I did with turmeric dye] 

Draw ze bath!

fill a BIG pot with enough water so the fabric can move around & set on the stove to boil

• a stainless steel stock pot is great for this so it doesn’t transfer or retain any color

if adding vinegar, i do about 1 c per 3 c water

add ground turmeric powder to water/vinegar.

• there are actual ratios for this but I just dump it in until it looks sufficiently orangey

Dye-cide yo Vibe

the general rule is that fabric should be wet going into the dye bath so it soaks up the dye evenly

• if you’re going for a shibori/tie dye vibe—fold/scrunch/swirl/twist & bind your fabric while the bath boils

• if you’re not worried about uniform color, toss it in the pot dry and see what happens!

• if you’re only trying to work with one pattern variant at a time: wet the fabric, wring it out, then go about your intended binding before adding it to the dye bath

once the water is at a low boil, add in fabric to dye and make sure it gets submerged. give it a stir with metal tongs [or whatever other utensil you don’t mind turning yellow forever & ever]

O Boil

here I let it softly boil for a few minutes, maybe 15-20, then turn the heat off and let the fabric soak overnight, stirring every so often to rotate the fabric

• feel free to toss in more turmeric if you want a deeper hue, just make sure to give it a proper mixing in

The Wash Up

once you’re done soaking, put on some gloves [trust me] and probably an apron or dark shirt to start rinsing your fabric.

• i try to get as much mileage out of each dye bath as scientifically possible, so i fish the fabric pieces out of the pot, squeeze out as much juice as I can & rinse them individually, shedding as much turmeric powder as possible [then I throw more stuff in the dye bath & start again!]

if you are just doing one round of dying, strain it like pasta in a [preferably metal] colander & blast it with water until it runs clear

next I toss them all in the washing machine on a quick rinse & spin cycle to get out any lingering pow pow.

• you can obvi do this by hand, and/or use a gentle pH neutral soap if you want kick out any lingering vinegar/turmeric smell, but you will lose a little of the color. [that’s okay tho! it’s going to fade eventually & now you’ll have a better idea of what that looks like]

heat dry is great and helps set the color further

YOU DID IT!!