Friday, July 5, 2019

Indigo Shibori Shirt Dyeing

I finally opened my Jacquard Indigo kit that I purchased from Dharma Trading company in December of 2016. I bought it to give me some motivation as I laid in bed recovering from my spinal fusion surgery that I had a few months earlier. Well, the kit sat there until the last Saturday this June.

Indigo dyeing seems to be very popular and I've wanted to check it out for awhile now. It was lots of fun and very different from the procion dyeing that I've been doing over 20 years.  The preparation of the fabrics using itajime or arashi techniques are the same however. Here are some pictures of some of the pieces made. I'll add more next week when I have more time.

As you can see below, I used a variety of itajime (folding, binding, clamping, etc.) techniques
 as well as the arashi (tied around the PVC pipe.)
The pieces below are oxidizing. They have been dipped from one to three times each. The more times you dip the fabric, the darker the dye will be.
(Notice, Fang, our black cat on the table in the back who likes to hang out in the studio.)





Above and below are two vintage linen napkins I dyed using the arashi technique
 and then cut and made them into this shirt. I'm really pleased with it. 
 The linen took the indigo dyes just beautifully. Thank you to my good friend Marilyn who gave me her mother's old linen napkins and tablecloths.


The lovely shirt below is a J. Jill, 100% Linen shirt, size Large, that I dyed in the indigo last week.
It is for sale if anyone is interested. Just email me or leave a comment.
It was gifted to me some time ago and no longer fits me.


Below is a video that show the indigo oxidizing.  After you finish doing all your dipping into the indigo, you open up the fabric to allow it to oxidize. 
That is when the fabric turns from  yellow-green to the dark blue.











3 comments:

  1. I LOVE your tank top!! Fabulous job. Also the other shirt. I have one of those kits as well, have had for a few years. Will try at some point. x

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  2. And I bought the same kit, and have yet to use it! But I love your results, Jeanne!

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  3. Thanks Judy! It took me a long time to get to Indigo as well. It's different than working with the procion dyes. After the fabrics have oxidized, which takes just minutes, you rinse them out and throw them in the wash machine. No curing/batching time needed. But then again, you can only get one color, Blue. However, By redipping you can get different values of it. I think you'll like it!

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