Removing color with deColorant

Now that the exhibit is up (yeah!) it’s time to get back to playing.

Talking about the exhibit, since it’s a study in fabric surface design, my cases in the show display several different techniques. You know I’m all about the process. One of the techniques I showed was discharge using deColorant. If you aren’t familiar with this product, in a nutshell it takes the color out of the fabric.

I had some solid blue fabric I dyed several months ago that I wanted to try this on.

Here are my steps:

Stamp and paint deColorant onto fabric. (It would have been nice for me to iron the fabric!)

When dry, iron the design and like magic, the fabric color behind it has disappeared. Oh how I love the magic! The last step is to wash the fabric to bring it back to it’s original soft hand.

I thought that was pretty cool. But then I overdyed a piece with sun yellow. Love this green!

And the last was over dyed with fuchsia.

I also bought some deColorant Plus which takes the color out and replaces it with another. I added silver to this poncho I ice dyed. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a closeup and it’s now in the exhibit, but if you look close you can see the wording and sun star images.

There are lots of products to take out color. I liked this one because it was easy to use. Also the smell was not too bad, but it’s a good idea when ironing to open a window or work in a well ventilated area.

Have you played with any of the discharge products? I’d love to hear your experiences. Thanks for dropping by.