The fun and challenge of dying scarves

The fun of dying scarves is the fun of playing with colors and design.

A color scheme can be a simple monochromatic- shades and tints of one color. Or one color can be the main color, while others are added as accents. For example, a scarf of light gray with accents of blue and dark gray. One can start with a dark color on one edge of a scarf and gradiate the color across several shades, or several different colors. With a rectangular scarf, this can be done starting with a long edge, working toward the other long edge; or starting with the two short edges, working toward the center.

The dyes (or paints) chosen, make a big difference in how a scarf is put together. For example, acid dyes can be set by boiling or by steaming. It is important to realize after painting a scarf with dye and letting it dry, that it is not done. It must still be steamed. To avoid this, one can use an acid dye for the background (boil it), and then add painted accents, which will need to be set with an iron.

There is a product called alter ego dye which is especially made for devore scarves- scarves in satin or velvet, where in some places the rayon portion of the fabric is removed, leaving behind the silk backing. This dye system involves two different dyes, one that will dye rayon and one that will dye silk. Both dyes are thrown into the pot, along with the scarf. It becomes what looks like a mess of color and fabric, but as it cooks, the dyes are taken up by the fabric and the pattern is revealed! The scarf, if it turns out well, looks very very good.

Which brings me to the challenge of dying scarves. The biggest difficulty is in making the dye come out evenly, with no light spots or dark spots. To encourage a good result, I wash scarves with synthrapol before dying. However, this is not necessarily enough. I need to find other tricks to help my scarves dye evenly. And that may be the topic for another post :o)