Hand Dyed Fabric for Mom

My mom's birthday is coming up again (happy 60th!) and I wanted to make her another batch of hand dyed fabric for her quilting projects (see here and here). I made her some fabric last year and she like it alot, so I thought I'd do it again.

Right after the dying process, each fabric piece is sealed in a plastic bag and let to rest for about 24 hours.

After resting, the excess dye is rinsed out and then the fabric is washed in the washing machine.

The colors are very vibrant when the fabric is wet, but a lot of the color usually washes out in the laundry.

Here are the first six fat-quarters (a quilting term meaning a quarter yard roughly in the shape of a square).

And here are the other six fat quarters.

I think this is one of my favorites (it combines my two favorite colors).

This one also turned out well. I was experimenting with using raw powdered dye sprinkled on to the fabric at the last minute. I think it looks pretty nice.

Hand Dyed Fabric

My mom is and art quilter and has a huge fabric collection. For her October birthday, I asked her if there were any particular colors of fabric she was in need of. She said she could use green and turquoise. She thought I was going to buy her fabric from the craft store, but since I enjoy dying fabric and yarn, I decided to make her some hand-dyed pieces.

Turquoise and green hand dyed fabric for Mom's birthday.

Since the fabric was so much fun to make for her birthday, I decided to make some more for Christmas. This time she requested blues, purples, and “sky pieces” (for using as background fabric for landscape applique projects).

I have collected a lot of dye over the years and I have quite a few colors to choose from. I had a lot of fun mixing colors, dipping the fabrics in multiple colors, and splattering various dyes to make a variety of mottled fabrics.   

After dying the fabric, I let it set overnight

After sitting overnight, the excess dye is rinsed out before putting the fabric in the washing machine

Before washing, the fabric is very vibrant. Unfortunately, it loses some of its color in the wash. 

The fabric gets very wrinkled and frayed a lot in the washing machine, but it's fairly easy to iron and clean up.

A variety of blues and purples.