Monday, January 9, 2012

Doily Dying...Take 2!

So after my last failure with trying to die the doily with food dye, I found a stall at one of the craft shows thats sells dyes aimed at laces etc. Not only will it be great to dye or tie dye my elastic for my headbands but I thought it'll be awesome for my doilies too! Below I have taken you through the process of my first attempt using OzeCraft Dyes.

These are my doilies before doing anything to them. I had cut them from a larger doily and ended up with heaps! I put fray check along the cut edges just incase there was a chance of them coming undone.


These are my OzeCraft Dyes that I got from Starr Laces & Ribbons at one of the craft shows. There is a whole big range of colours but the ones I got are; Turquoise, Regency Rose, Victorian Plum and Violet.

You can use the dyes straight out of the bottle but they are rather strong and it's easier to start with less and add more after. So I decided to dilute the dye with some water. I used a normal old medicine measuring cup and diluted each colour with 10ml of water.


But what do you mix the water and dye in?? Well the lovely lady at the stall told me to use an ice cube tray if you don't want to do a big batch of colour. Since this is my first time using these dyes I thought I would go with the small and simple approach and use the ice cube tray. You can't see the water but I have 4 x 10ml cubes.

Since I am not an owner of an eye dropper I had to figure out a way to get an even measurement of the dye. *Light bulb turns on* Does anyone remember the whole finger ontop of the straw to hold your drink in it trick?? Well I made a little mark on the straw end and used it as my 'eye dropper'.


Here is a little before and after to get a better visual effect on what I was talking about before. If you don't know the straw trick you simply dip the straw into the liquid (dye) to the line and then put ur finger over the open end which will then hold the liquid in the straw when you pull it out. To drop the dye just let go of the end and it should fall out. I also swizzled the straw around in the water to get all the dye out...


This is what my water looked like after doing two lots of my straw measurement. Nice and bright!
This is my little note to remind myself what I did to get what colour. If I want a lighter colour next time I know to add more water and vice versa. The 'straw line' means the line on the straw is 9-10mm from the end.


Then just dip your brush in the dye and start dabbing it on the doily. It soaks into the fibres and spreads out but I covered all the doily in the dye solution to get an even coverage. Also my nails match the pain brush! Ha!


Here is the end result! I LOVE them! Top two are Turquoise and Victorian Plum (I could use less water in this one next time). The bottom two are Violet and Regency Rose. I like the lightness of the regency rose but I want to try it with less water next time too.


Since I still had some solution left over (but not alot!) I thought I would test out doing two tone doilies. I must say I am more than impressed and can't wait to get some more of these dyes!


Oh...I also had some beaded bling for my new USB that is dedicated entirely to BB. A whole 16GB!


Do you guys like the dyes as much as I do??


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep, Bree, I love them, thinking one day I'll have to get some.
Very pretty.

Tracey

Kylie said...

Love the colour of victorian plum! Just gorgeous :-) Can't wait to see what you make with them xo

Nat Monkivitch said...

OOOOh Bree,

Those two tone doilies do it for me.... delish!!!