A couple years ago I blogged about iced dyed parfait and the results. It was such a fun experiment and you can see the results here. It’s a great way to use up old dyes and get surprise fabric designs.
So this time I tried it without the ice and I really love the results.
If you aren’t familiar with parfait dyeing, all you do is place fabric (that has been washed and then soaked in soda ash water) in a container one piece at a time. So you put the first one in the container and add a dye color. Then you add the next piece of fabric and add a color, and on and on until you fill up the container or quit! While adding each piece of fabric I pushed the fabric down so the colors would mix.
Here are my results with the fabric in order from the bottom to the top of the container. This bottom piece is one of my favorites.
I also dyed some other fabric outside the parfait pot and one I wasn’t real happy with it. It’s pretty, but not what I wanted. I’ve been working on some new stencils for some of Dave’s shirts I’ll be dyeing and I tested the turtle stencil on that fabric. I think Mr. Turtle is ready for prime time!
I also got Dave to model the last shirt I dyed for him. I was surprised he wanted such bright colors. He loves it and he looks so cute in it (if I do say so myself).
Weeding and mulching has been a big priority here. I’m trying to get the majority of it done before the bugs and heat get too bad. I do see the end of the major work coming soon which will leave me more time to create. Have a wonderful colorful Monday.
Have a question – wasn’t the fabric first treated with soda ash? Did you use any salt or did you wash the fabric first?
Hi Sue, I always wash any fabric I dye regardless if it is PFD or not. And yes it was first soaked in soda ash. There are exceptions (I’m doing one of those today) but I usually always soak my fabric in soda ash water before dyeing it. Often I just pull it out of the water and dye. If I’m going to dye later, I’ll hang the fabric to dry, but rarely do that. No, I didn’t use salt.
You’ve made some gorgeously coloured cloth. Would definitely like to try this.
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Jenny, Thank you so much!
Could you tell me what colors you used with the iceless dyeing they look great.
Thanks Lynda
Hi Antonia, From bottom to top: Blue, yellow, red, blue, yellow. When I ice dyed I used several colors on layers and it made most of them too dark. I’m using pure fiber reactive dyes on this project, instead of composite colors or those colors made with one or more other color. If you’re not familiar with pure colors, here is a link to a page where you can download the list: http://www.prochemicalanddye.com/home.php?cat=388. Thanks for dropping by.
Love the ice dyed fabric could you tell me what colors were used in each layer?
Antonia, This fabric is not ice dyed, it’s just stacked in a container. From bottom up only one dye per fabric layer: Blue, Yellow, Red, Blue, Yellow. You push the fabric down after pouring the dye on the layer. It’s magic. Thanks for your question.
Hi Lynda. Love this result. I really enjoy ice dying but would love to try “ no ice parfait” how big were your pieces of fabric? Approximately how much of the dyes did you use? Thank you Lynda. Love your posts!!
Hi Linda, Thanks. These pieces are fat quarters and I used about 1/2 teaspoon of dye per fabric. Thanks again for dropping by and commenting.