Disperse Dyes for Dyeing and Printing

Last month we ventured into a new technique for us -  disperse dyes for transfering and printing on blended fabric. The fabric has to have at least 50% of a synthetic, preferably a fabric like polyester which is more heat tolerant than something like nylon.

Denny has worked with this technique extensively and led us through a day of fun and experimenting.

First thing was to show us her samples for inspiration.

Some of the background created with this technique used a silk screen on top as a second layer.

Lots of layering - much of what you see is the result of layering first one paper painted with disperse dyes, then the second paper and so on.

Denny uses lots of masks where she creates a background, lays a mask down - in this case the image of the girl, then lays more papers down on top to iron the dyes onto the background. When the mask is lifted you have this wonderful effect.

Here's our work space - lots of paper - computer paper works well, which has disperse dyes painted on top of them in any manner you want.

They can be solid, stripes, dots etc, there are endless possibilities in the way you paint the paper. You can also silk screen an image on paper using these dyes.

A transfer pen also works well, applying it to paper and then ironing the paper onto fabric to transfer the marks.

There are also iron on transfer pens in colors.

Denny also brought lots of dyes to share so we were off and running.

The first step is very fast and easy...any paper you paint on is fair game. The above is randome dots created with a brush. You can even use the newspaper underneath where it is the "over-flow" paint on it.

These papers were created using a stencil.

This paper was multi-colored....

and this one had stripes. It looks like this paper was laid over corrugated cardboard and rubbed with a fabric crayon which is a form of disperse dye.

This stencil was passed around a lot as you can see.

After these are dried, they are ironed right side down on a piece of blended or 100% polyester. The dyes are transferred through heat and only work on fabric with synthetic in it.

We just met for the second part of this mini workshop so .......Next time, the results. I will say, this technique has endless possibilities and it just gets more exciting as you work. One thing leads to another...leads to another.