Shibori on a vintage dress!

[labricoleuse]

I think i've mentioned that i break my dye class down into three sections--dye chemistry/color theory/color-matching/dyeshop safety, surface design, and distressing/aging. They're about to move out of the first section (which doesn't yield much "fun" stuff for the blog) into surface design.

The first surface design project they do is occlusive pattern generation--techniques like shibori and bandhani where you fold and tie and stitch and clamp the fabric in different ways to achieve different results. The process can be quick and simple (bound/clamped) or ornate and time-consuming (tied/stitched), and can be a means of creating depth and pattern and value variations using few tools, suppplies, and equipment.

Our stock manager recently brought me a vintage dress with wine-staining, on which i did an example process of a simple bound and ombred technique.


The dress beforehand--celery green but for some prominent wine stains (not shown).


Wrapped and bound to a pipe and half-submerged in a yellow dyebath.


Flipped around and dunked in a darker green bath.


Here's what it looks like before untying and rinsing.


Finished dress--could be a fairy in Midsummer or something now,
or reprocessed with another color entirely.


Some sample garments and yardage showing surface design effects.

I'll be posting some photos soon of what my students come up with, too!

Comments

[txreisende.livejournal.com]

Fascinating! What types of dyes and mordants did you use? Did you pre-treat the fabric with anything first? It looks like silk or a silk blend, but you didn't say, so I'm not quite sure. I like the mottled effect that the binding gives, but I've always wondered how to achieve a smooth gradation of color that does not have obvious lines, a color concept that features prominently in a lot of my favorite designs, but which I do not have either the facilities or the knowledge to produce properly in my limited workshop space.

[ariyanakylstram.livejournal.com]

smooth gradations of color come from dip dye processes -- I've only ever worked with scarves like this, but it's a lovely effect.

Using the scarf example, make vat of dye, take prepared scarf and dip end(s) into the dyebath, suspending the rest above the dyebath in an area clear from dye. The dye will wick up the fabric (take note and keep an eye on things). If you want more color further up, you can soak more and more of the scarf length in the bath -- use a timer -- and you'll eventually have a gradation of color.

[txreisende.livejournal.com]

Okay, that sounds about like what I was thinking would be necessary. Thank you! What types of dyes do you prefer to use? I've been ordering from the Dharma Trading Company, and have had good results with all of their product lines, but would like to know what else is out there, and how effective they are.

[ariyanakylstram.livejournal.com]

I am also a Dharma fan. :)

In fact, the scarves I've dyed in the past have all been Dharma's PFD scarves, mostly their velvet and cut-velvet ones. Plain velvet really shows off the dip dye, and cut velvets just look sumptuous when straight dyed in the dyebath (no sense wasting any dye!)

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you--we had a lot of prospective applicants to the program visit this week. I see someone else had some good input about color gradations. The process you are talking about, i think, is the ombre process--i talk about how to do it in this post here, so see if that helps with your question: http://labricoleuse.livejournal.com/39840.html

With respect to limited space, I would recommend checking out a book called Color By Accident, by Ann Johnston. She has some great methods for doing low-immersion dye effects using fiber-reactive room-temperature dyes, and very small amounts of water and containers!

In this project i just used Rit dye, because i didn't know the fiber content of the dress and had no way to take a sample for testing (none of the seam allowances had enough to clip a few threads, and the weave is so loose i didn't want to weaken the seams anyhow).

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

Oh that is beautiful.