When life give you snow, give snow dyeing a try! This has been on my radar for a few years, after buying some snow dyed fabric at a local quilt show a few years ago. A conversation over the week-end with some fellow fiber artists about snow dying yarn reminded me of this technique. I bought some supplies this summer to try out batik dying (but never did), and with the addition of another cold snap, and some fresh snow this week, I "carpe diem'ed".
I found this tutorial, from Dharma Trading Company, the website / store that I bought all of my supplies. Of course I used snow, instead of ice. I used the colors wasabi, hydrangea, and paloma gold, all pastels, but as you can see, almost none of those colors are visible in the finished product. I used pima cotton that I also bought from Dharma Trading Company, as well as 2 white shirts that I bought from them, 2 womens, and 1 unisex. The womens' shrank quite a bit during washing. I am beyond thrilled at how this turned out, and have already ordered more dye and supplies, and am among the minority of people who are hoping for MORE snow haha!
Basically I soaked prewashed fabric in the soda ash solution for half an hour while I collected a tub, wire shelf / rack, gloves and snow.
I wrung out the fabric, crumpled and laid it on top of the wire rack.
Next, I piled a few inches of snow on top of the fabric, and sprinkled the dye powder directly on top of the snow.
...and waited
...and waited
...and waited
...and waited.
The next day, about 22 hours later, I then rinsed the excess dye out of all of the fabric. This was my least favorite step in the whole process, as it took a lot of rinses, and a lot of time, but did provide a good upper body workout LOL. Once the rinse water was clear, I put it in my washing machine and rinsed one final time, then washed in hot water with a teaspoon of liquid dishwashing soap. I did not have any sythol, but read that you can substitute dish soap. Seems to have worked. We have a front loader with a clear glass door, and I could not see any color coming out of the rinse water in the final wash. After a trip in the dryer and a hot iron, I was just delighted beyond words at how beautiful the final fabric turned out.
