Fun With Rust Dying

Have just had a fabulous weekend at home with Dot. We had a go at rust dying following the instructions on Purplemissus blog. Undaunted by the fact that it was raining and we couldn't be messy outside we set to inside. It has to be said that doing this indoors is not the best of ideas as ferrous sulphate and caustic soda in a tea bag solution smells foul! But we had great fun anyway.






These first two images are of the fabric first dipped into a solution of soda crystals then into the teabag bath followed by the ferrous sulphate. The very vibrant piece in the bottom right hand corner of the first photo is felt from Whaleys.




The second two photos are the fabrics dipped into a solution of vinegar first. The instructions did say white vinegar ( not white wine vinegar as Dot kept telling me! ). We didn't have very much white vinegar so sloshed some malt into the mix as well. If in doubt, experiment! The colours came out a lot more muted this time, especially on the papers. I used a pippet to apply the ferrous sulphate solution to some of the pieces so that I would have more control over the outcome.

Our lovely array of 'RAGS' hanging out to dry after washing the dye out!

I was ever so pleased with most of the results. A piece of cotton velvet that was dunked into the dye baths took on a beautiful rust and purple hue but all the purple went when it was washed out and I was left with splodges of dark brown, very disappointed with that but I will over dye it with a couple of other bits I didn't like so they won't go to waste.