Fabric Dyeing, Gradation Dyeing, Low water immersion dyeing

Ombre Dyed Sheers


My eldest son lives in San Francisco and recently moved into a new apartment.  His room is quite large and has a beautiful bay window where he has his desk situated.  He enjoys this desk placement with lots of sunlight flooding him when he is working and a nice view out the window.

 

At certain times of the day, the sun shines directly into his eyes, making working at his computer a bit difficult. He attempted to remedy this problem by putting up some sheers that would block the sun, but still allow some light into the room.

Unfortunately, the sun was still too bright in the late afternoon.  So, when the sheers did not solve his problem, he sought another solution.  His idea was to find some Ombre dyed sheers that were dark grey on the top and transitioning to white on the bottom.

Due to the size of the window, the only ones that he could find were nearly $600. Before he purchased these, he sent me a message to seek my advice about whether this was a good idea. Having recently tried out ombre dyeing of scarves, I thought that the price might be a bit high and offered to make some sheers for him.

Supplies:
Mid-weight Linen (Dharma Trading) 54” wide, 5.1 oz per yard
Wooden dowel, 5 ft length
Support rods – I used two camera tripods with a board attached to the top.
Dye – Black Silk, Jet Black
Unsoftened water, 12 gallons
Soda Ash, Salt
Retayne
Dye Vat:
2 x 6 Cedar, 48” x 2
2 x 6 Cedar, 12” x 2 – screw to ends of 48”
Heavy duty plastic stapled to wood to create dye vat 48” x 9″
Trial Day One:
Cut fabric to 90” length
Sew 1” doubled rod sleeve at one end
Pin opposite end to wooden dowel, roll up extra fabric (cover extra fabric with plastic bag to keep dye from splattering on white end of fabric)
Mark fabric with pin at 8” and then every 4” up to 48” from rod sleeve
Set up tripods at 6 feet height with board attached
Fill dye vat with 4 gallons hot soda ash solution
Add Black Silk dye (250 mg/ml concentrate) – 1,1,2,4,4,8,8,10,10,20,20 ml
Dip fabric to farthest pin, hang and move out of the way
Add next dye quantity (see above) and repeat until all dye has been added
Hang to dry and batch for 2 hours

Wash with Blue Dawn in hot water

Lesson learned – Black silk dye on linen washes out to a blueish color

Trial Day Two:

Question – does a mixed of two different black dyes keep the gray color better?
Followed the same technique as above, but mixed two different black dyes
Black Silk (250 mg/ml concentrate) – 50 ml, mixed with
Jet Black (250 mg/ml concentrate) – 50 ml
Add dye (250 mg/ml concentrate) –  1,1,2,4,4,8,8,10,10,20,20 ml

Wash with Blue Dawn in hot water

Lesson learned – when working outdoors, monitor the wind to make sure that the fabric does not blow down and land on the dirty driveway, and Jet Black dye leaves a reddish tint to the un-dyed fabric.

Trial Day Three:
Question – does spraying the dye on work better? does washing in cold water keep the color from fading
Pin white end of fabric to clothes line

Mark fabric with pin at 8” then at 4” intervals up to 48” from rod sleeve
Spray fabric with hot soda ash solution to saturate bottom 48” of hanging fabric
Dilute 7.5 mg Black Silk dye in 1000ml SA solution
Spray 200ml on bottom 8”
Add 200 ml SA and spray next 4”
Repeat and continue up to 48”
Let batch for 2 hours
Wash with Blue Dawn in cold water
Lesson learned – spraying caused distinct lines to be visible on the fabric, but the cold water did help slightly.
Trial Day Four:
Question – does Retayne help set the gray color better?
Follow the same technique as Day One
Batch for two hours
Dilute 1 T Retayne in 1 gallon hot water, dip the dyed fabric for 5 minutes
Hang and allow to set for 20 minutes

Wash with Blue Dawn in cold water

Lesson learned – this is the center panel in the photo above and was by far the best result!!

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