Wednesday, September 23, 2009

I dyed my own embroidery floss! Yes indeedy!


A couple weeks back I couldn't find the right color embroidery floss for a craftster swap project... looking for the right kind of gradient. Having had past tie dying experience this summer I thought why not try dying white embroidery floss with the tie dyes?

It worked like a charm you can see for yourself... just remember that color varies from monitor to monitor & I'm so thrilled with how it turned out!

For this project, I used the tulip one step tie dye kit in bright rainbow colors...following manufacturers instructions for mixing & preparing my work area just as I had when doing T-shirts.

I soaked the skeins of floss in the soda ash water mixture for over half an hour first... then spread it out on a protected card table. Rather than 'tying' the floss...I just dripped the color onto the areas I wanted...then popped the skeins into baggies for the color to set.
For some lighter...less saturated colors, I simply pressed fresh white floss onto a previously dyed skein as it lay on the table...& the colors came out softer looking as the dye was transferred.
If you dye your own floss too ...either using this method or another one, I'd love to hear about it!
:o)

3 comments:

Karen said...

hi! gorgeous threads! Thanks so much for the comment, it's truly appreciated. Karen

Anonymous said...

fabulous idea...the colors are so brilliant!!! please share this creation at the ilovetocreate.com gallery!!!

Crafterella said...

I never would have thought to do embroidery floss! Do you think the dye would run if the floss got wet?