After comparing the different dyeing process I have trialed in this project in a post called Comparing the dyeing methods I have trailed . I came to the decision that I would use Ice Dyeing to dye the fabric for my final piece Bubble/Balloon skirt as I absolutely loved the sample I made using this dyeing process.
First of all I cut out the panels for my skirt, I am using calico for my final piece skirt as I used this fabric for my skirt toile and my ice dyeing samples and it seemed the most Ideal fabric for this. I cut 2 linings, measuring 65cm wide and 70cm in length and I cut fabric for the outside of the skirt as well, this measures the width of the roll and 80cm in length.
I finally rough cut a waistband a bit longer and wider than I needed so I can cut it down to the right size when I am attaching it to the skirt.
I started by gathering everything I needed for the ice dyeing pictured and labelled in the image below.
The photo below is of the 4 powdered dyes, I have chosen them from the Ice dyeing colour test on fabric I made, this has allowed my to look at colour combinations and individual colours to make a better choice of colour to suit the colour palette of my theme of Mars.
The dyes I used were Tulip Red, Goldfish Orange, Peach and Golden Yellow.
I began the dyeing process by dampening all 5 pieces of fabric under the tap. Dampening your fabric before adding the dye allows for better dye saturation.
I then got one piece of fabric and laid it flat on the table.
Next I crumpled up the fabric and then put three elastic bands around it to hold the fabric together.
Once I had put the elastic bands on I placed the fabric into the container.
I then repeated the process above for the other for pieces of fabric.
Below is a photo of the fabric in the containers there is 3 pieces in the left container and two in the right.
I then placed the ice cubes onto the fabric ensuring that all the fabric in both containers are covered with ice.
This time I used a spoon to add the dye powders onto the ice instead of just shaking a bit onto the ice this allows me to control the amount of each colour dye is added to the top, for some colours I added more and others I added less.
I started by adding Tulip Red onto the ice I added a very small amount of this particular colour compared to the other three colours.
Next I added Goldfish orange onto the ice in both containers.
I then added Peach onto the ice.
Finally I added the last colour Golden Yellow onto the ice.
This is what the left container looked like once all the dyes had just been added and a close up photo of the powdered dyes on the surface of the ice cubes.
This is what the right container looked like once all the dyes had just been added and a close up photo of the powdered dyes on the surface of the ice cubes.
This is what the ice dyeing looked like after roughly an hour it had only started to slightly melt.
This is a photo taken a lot later than the photos above and the ice cubes had melted a lot more.
The ice cubes melted very slowly, I think it took roughly 5 hours for all the ice to melt away completely.
As the ice had fully melted and soaked into the fabric, there was a lot of dye that had collected in the bottom of both of the containers, so I removed the fabric and placed it on the lids and got rid of all the liquid in the bottom of both containers so the fabric did not sit in the dye as it would still soak into the fabric and dye it so I ideally wanted to avoid this.
I then placed all the samples back into the container and then I left it for an hour to see if any more dye would collect in the containers.
When I checked back after an hour there was no dye in the containers so I decided to remove the elastic bands off of each piece of fabric and unravel it slightly so they could begin to dry.
The next day, I decided to take my fabric into the garden and rinse it out in a large tub.
I started by filling the tub with water.
I only did two at a time and I rinsed them out in the water.
I then rung the fabric out to remove the water as you can see from this photo compared to the one above a lot of the excess dye rinsed out.
I then repeated this process for the 3 other piece of fabric.
I laid the fabric in the sun to dry for a bit on some plastic bags so the artificial dye did not damage the grass.
This is how my fabric looked once it was dry it was extremely creased from being crumpled up and tied up with elastic bands.
I then filled the iron up with water and steam ironed all 5 pieces of fabric.
This is what the finished ice dyed fabric looked like once they had been ironed and I had managed to remove all of the larger creases. There are still a few small creases in the fabric which I could not iron out, but I quite like the look of the fabric with the small creases as it adds some texture similar to the surface of mars that has a rocky terrain.
Now that my fabric has been cut out, ice dyed and ironed it is ready for the construction of my final piece Bubble/Ballon skirt.
I am really happy with how the fabric turned out and how all 5 pieces of fabric have a similar amount of each colour with each being very different in design and they all have different water marks from the ice melting and the dye drying.
I am now looking forward to beginning the construction process of this garment.
Unpicking Fashion 