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??

Doily dying fun! Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of dying a doily with food colouring. Unfortunately I can't say I have good news exactly. It seems using food dye doesn't stay put when thrown in the washing machine. Anywho I will explain more later....

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Dying a doily - Part 2

1. Once the doily has dried I rinsed it with cold running water. I let it soak up the water and then rung it out a couple of times. I didn't notice too much food colouring coming out but I did do it in the kitchen sink and it's hard to see.

Place it on some paper towel or tissues to soak up some of the water and dry a little bit.

You can see that mine is starting to look slightly lighter in colour.

2. After the doily had dried I threw it in the washing machine just on a rinse cycle without any detergent or anything. This is how it came out. I don't think it liked the washing machine too much.


I did put it through once more and it has come out slightly lighter again but I'm not sure if the dye will completely come out now or not. I haven't tried it with any suds so I'm concerned that it could wash the dye out completely.

So experiment outcome = fail. I loved the colour it originally came out but looks like I'll have to go get some fabric dye and use them instead!

Doily dying fun! Part 1

Playing with doilies is something I have taken a liking too lately and I thought that I would give using food colouring to dye a doily a go! I haven't found any tuts on the web exactly aimed at this so I hope that what I've extracted from here and there will work. This is only part 1 of my experiment/tutorial so you'll have to bare with me!

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Dying a doily - Part 1

1. Start off with a lovely crochet doily of your choosing. I found this pretty and delicate one in my doily stash and thought it would suit being pink! Although it might look white it is actually an off white/light cream colour and I couldn't be bothered with washing it. I buy my doilies from a charity store and I am presuming that they wash everything before selling it.


2. I put the doily in a measuring cup of water (or any other microwave safe bowl/cup/thing) and put it in the microwave for around 1-2min. Apparently warm water helps with dying stuff. So once I had done this I sat it aside while I got the next step set up.


3. This step involves water, white vinegar and food colouring (Rose Pink). I got a saucepan and filled it with water until it was around 2inch in depth. I then added around 4 tablespoons of white vinegar, you can use distilled vinegar as well apparently. Why add vinegar? I thought the same thing and was worried my doily would be all smelly but apparently the vinegar helps the material to take on the dye and the more vinegar you add the more vibrant the colour. Yet another fact found with my awesome research skills. I then turned the gas on "High" to get the heat going.

Adding the food colouring. I thought on my first attempt I should stick with something easy so went for the Rose Pink food colouring by Queens. To be honest I don't know any difference between food colourings, just get it from Woolies or Coles...or any other reputable supermarket. I used a straw to add my food colouring (you know the old dip, hold the top, release trick) and I would say I added around 20-30 drops-ish. Mix it in so it's evenly distributed.


4. By now you should be getting some bubbles going. Turn the temp down to "Low" so that you get just a nice simmer and pop in your doily! If you keep it on High and bring it to the boil your doily won't sit in the water properly and could get dyed unevenly (trust me).

I used two big spoons to hold the doily under the water but remember metal does get HOT after a while.

I kept the water simmering for around 20-30minutes. I'm not sure if this did anything more than usual but it didn't hurt. I then turned off the gas and let it cool.


5. Once the steam had gone and the water cooled down a little I took a sneak peek at the doily to make sure all my hard work had paid off. So far so good, right!?!

In total I would say the doily was in the water for around 2hours, possibly a little bit under. Me being impatient I probably should have left it in there another hour or two just for good measure.


6. Once the water had cooled ( i.e me not being able to wait any longer) I lifted the doily out onto a couple of sheets of paper towel. I will be leaving it here to dry overnight and then onto part 2!

To be continued........