Dyeing and Waxing

When women mention dyeing and waxing, they are generally referring to hair. Needless to say, when I tossed boiling into the mix on Facebook, my friends were a bit taken aback! I've been trying my hand at dyeing fabric for a couple of years. Recently, I added wax printing (batik) to the process. I'm loving the process, but my results aren't usually how I've imagined them in my head. It's a learning process. I would love to become good enough at this to sell my fabric pieces. In fact, I may even try tossing a few onto my Etsy store soon just to see how it goes.

Here are some pictures of initial attempts at the process.

This was supposed to be the Yellow Rose of Texas. The blue shows up somewhat in this picture, but in person, it was very hard to see the Texas. This piece got more wax, some bleach, some dye, and more wax and dye. Waiting for it to dry now!

Butterflies in pink on peach. Except you can't make out the butterflies. I did more waxing and overdyed it. It's now a maroon funky piece that will have to be used as a filler for something. 

Love this one. It faded when I washed it, though. Still pretty, but a very pale pink. I need to use more dye next time. The "stamp" is a part of a back massager from Walmart! LOL! 

Cheap potato masher & a mini bell pepper provided the stamps. Added some more color & stamps to this. Waiting to see the final result. 

Way too pale a red. I re-dyed it in red for vibrance. I stamped hearts in Texas (as in "deep in the heart of Texas) and added some jalapeños (or red peppers, to be accurate). We'll see how it comes out. 

The part I don't like that I need to find a work around is removing color in between dyes. You can't get some colors next to each other (they'd mix) so you have to remove some of the color. The best way is with bleach and vinegar. NOT together! One, then the other. I want to see if there are any safer ways to do this. The fumes aren't good for any of us. If I do it again I'll try going outside & using dishpans. 

I've also hand "dyed" some fabric with fabric paint. I've used Dye-Na-Flow from Jacquard and have some Lumiere to use, too. I tried just adding Textile Medium to craft acrylic, but the paint is still too stiff when it dries. The Jacquard fabric paints are very soft when they dry, just like dye. 

I'll share pictures of these fabrics finished when they're ready!