Ombré dyeing is a way to create a gradient effect, and for this project, I am doing a couple of babywearing wraps. The wraps are 100% linen at roughly 29" wide, with one wrap at about 3.5 yds long and the other at 75" long. The short one is destined to be a ring sling.
The setup for the dye process. I have the cloth clipped to hangers by clothespins, or on hangers with clips. They are arranged so the long strip of cloth is zigzagging back and forth between hangers. I have them hanging from the support struts on my tripod, with the tripod set on top of various buckets to get some extra height. At each darker layer, I will raise the legs of the tripod to pull the cloth out of the dyebath. The next step was to add almost but not quite 3 gallons of water (because I estimated I had 1 lb fabric, since I was only dyeing halfway up each), and a canister of non-iodized salt. The salt just drives the dye from the water, and helps with evenness. Soda ash is what actually causes the dye to react with the cloth and fixes it to permanence.
Here's the cloth in the least
concentrated dyebath (left) and most concentrated (right). As I went, I
added more dye to the bath while pulling the cloth out a bit, which
created a darker color for each layer. The amount of dye you add to
each layer should double the concentration of the dyebath. So for 5
layers, I premixed 2c. cool water with 5t dye (Dharma's Royal Blue).
For the first dye layer I used 1/4 c. mixed into the water and salt.
The next layer I added another 1/4 c. For the next layer, I added 1/2
c. bringing the total dye mixture to 1 c. For the final layer I added 1
c. dye mix to use up my dye. At each step I added some soda ash
premixed with more water. My total water content was 3 gallons, all
told, as well as the 1/3 c. soda ash, 5t dye, 1 canister salt.
 |
| Royal Blue and Aquamarine |
Above is the finished result, on the longer fabric, which I had previously gradation dyed with Jacquard's Aquamarine. It is more of a Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip than what I expected aquamarine to look like, but that's ok, I like it with the blue.
If I were to do this exact same project again, I would have left out one teaspoon of dye, since the 4th and 5th layers are essentially the same color. Though I love the depth of the color, I was hoping for a slightly slower fade. Also, I would not have dyed two cloths in the same bath, or at least not in that particular space. It was very difficult to move the fabric out of the way enough to pour in more dye and soda ash without touching them to each other, or dripping and spreading dye onto the parts that were supposed to remain white. I ended up accidentally splashing some of the darker dye while pouring it in, which is how I got those dark spots. I would be upset if this were for someone else, but since it's just for me, I like the character the spots and irregularities add.
