I’ve been wanting to get an indigo pot going for some time now, and this past week was the perfect time. Also, Laura with Design Matters TV kind of gave me the nudge to do it with her video on over dyeing with indigo. So my goal for this session was to over dye previously dyed fabric and clothing with indigo.
If you have never dyed with indigo, I recommend buying this kit from Jacquard. For more info, you can check out this blog post.
All you need to do is follow the directions, wait for about a half hour, and then let the fun begin. I put Cat Steven’s Greatest Hits on the cd player, and started dyeing!
I did my actual dyeing in the garage, but after dyeing I put the dyed items in the sun.
I waited about 20 minutes before I opened them up.
I left them out in the sun until I was done with the cleanup. Then I rinsed to get most of the extra dye out and washed in hot water with two rinses.
Now for the results. First I’ll show you before and after pictures of clothing. These have all been previously dyed.
This is one of the very first shirt I iced dyed way back when. The design was okay, but it was getting old and I really didn’t like it anymore. I’d wear it to volunteer for our community dinners. It didn’t matter if I spilled something on it. Now with a little indigo, it’s a new shirt!!
This ice dyed poncho was also dyed many years ago when I first created the ice dyeing technique. It’s a beautiful piece (and was in both of my exhibits) but the colors just didn’t look good on me. I thought maybe indigo would mute the colors and I was right. But I still can see the printing on it although not as bright. I absolutely love it now and will wear it!
Here is another ice dyed one. Again the colors didn’t look that great on me. Over dyeing with indigo pretty much wiped out all of the colors. I like it, but not as much as the others.
For this last shirt I don’t have a before picture. This is another shirt I dyed quite awhile ago, and found it hidden in the back of my closet. It was pink and I had used Color Magnet with a wood printing block on it. You can still see the wood block pattern and some of the pink. I like this shirt much better too now, and even wore it yesterday – first time in years!
For the fabric I will be showing you how I folded it, and then the Before and After. Here is the first piece fan folded, and clipped with clothes pins. I love how the indigo calmed down the red in this piece.
Again fan folded, but this time from top to bottom, and lots of clothes pins.
Now to fan fold, flag fold, and add clothes pins. I love how the indigo added an interesting layer.
This one I twisted the fabric and added rubber bands. I think I might like the original piece better.
This one was fan folded, fan folded again, and then clothes pinned. Indigo didn’t do much for this one.
I didn’t take a picture of what I did. I fan folded, fan folded into a square just like the one above, then added two plexiglass circles with clamps.
This piece is my favorite. It was ice dyed with a Dharma muck dye called Covfefe. It’s a salmon color. I really didn’t think I’d ever use it. I’ll be using this piece for sure.
This is a great way to “fix” fabric you don’t like or are tired of. I felt that it did improve most of the pieces. Indigo is pretty magical. In addition to being able to watch the fabric turn from yellow green to indigo, it also seems to play nicely with all colors.
Have a great weekend! See you next week.
What another wonderful post. Great instructions..THANK YOU MUCH.
Sue, Thanks!
Lynda, these are gorgeous. I’ve never tried indigo dying, but now you’ve got me interested.
Lynda,
I too have used indigo dyeing to ‘change’ things. I’ve even indigo dyed fabric that I purchased that I wasn’t fond of anymore. It is amazing what a dip or two in a bucket of blue can do for something that would otherwise be heading to the thrift store.
I always enjoy catching up with your latest adventures.
Sherrie, Thanks! It’s pretty amazing.
Luann, Great idea to dip commercial fabric. I never thought of that although I don’t have much of that. Thanks for keeping in touch. I am always inspired at what you are doing.
Thanks for taking us along with you on your indigo journey, from product to use to clamping to finished fabrics. Love the idea of using an overdye to improve less than wonderful results.
These fabrics are so fantastic. I think this winter I will have to try this.
I love what you have done with overdyeing. What a great idea. I plan to order a kit. I wondered if you were able to keep your indigo vat going or did you dispose of it after dyeing this batch. How many times did you dip? Thank you. I always find your information so useful.
Hi Claudia. Thanks. It lasts about a week. If you buy extra chemicals you can keep it going forever. I had those extra chemicals but they were too old. In fact, my first pot was no good so I ended up using the kit which was newer and had not been stored in the garage. I threw out the chemicals I had. So if I had some of them, I could keep this going. I just dipped once because it was so strong. It’s so much fun. I hope you will do it.
Jackie, Thanks. You can do it in the winter, but it’s much easier because you can lay out the pieces in the sun. Have fun!
Same as you, I have done it with the kit but disposed of it right after dyeing and so that is why I was wondering if you keep yours going. I dye so seldom that it is not worth storing extra chemicals. It is fun and nice surprises occur
Love the over dying. Have to add this to my to-do list.
Hi Michele, Isn’t it amazing what a difference the Indigo made to those shirts and poncho? I sure hope you put it on your to-do list. I love Indigo, but using it to over dye just added another reason to mix up a pot. Thanks for dropping by.
Will overdyeing work on commercial fabrics if I scour?
Jamie, It should as long as the fabric is mostly natural such as cotton, linen or rayon. I’ve never dyed poly but from what I have read, the regular indigo dye bath won’t dye polyester well.
Will the color of the commercial fabric show in the resist areas?
Jamie, If you are using resists, then whatever the base fabric is, it will show through. That’s really with any dyeing or printing you do with resists. Hope that helps. If not, email me a lsheines at gmail dot com and I’ll be glad to answer you in more detail if needed.
Wow! Big mahaloz🤙🏽 Your blog on over dye is great 🤩