Tutorial, part 1: Hand-dyed Fabric Trims

* As I mentioned earlier, I've been working on a new tutorial, but yesterday I saw that Sew, Mama, Sew is having a tutorial contest this month so I thought I'd go ahead and enter. For a chance at some of their terrific fabrics? Of course! This tutorial will be in two parts. The first part is a do-it-yourself tutorial for dyeing your own fabric and lace trims to use in your sewing projects. Part two is a follow-up of that process to dye paper towels--yes, you read that right!--that you can use in your paper crafts, mixed media art, or fabric art. I'll show you how. Are you ready? Let's go!

Tutorial: Hand-dyed Fabric Trims

Part One:

I love the idea of dyeing and painting my own fabric designs. What I don't love are the huge vats of dyes, waxes, specialty tools, and expensive fabric paints that are often required. (Although I do love the fabulous results you can get!) And, as much as I'd love to, I just don't have the space to lay out and dye whole pieces of cloth. So, I've had to learn ways to get similar results on a smaller, less expensive, and locally available scale. It turns out I've had so much fun with it that I've experimented with dyeing or colorwashing just about every raw material I can think of. That's how it occurred to me to dye my own fabric trims. I have a weakness for lace trims, but they are difficult to find in the bright colors I prefer. There are, however, gobs of easy to find and less expensive to buy white trims available at fabric, craft, and even thrift shops. I bet you have tons of them mixed in your stash right now.

Here's what I had on hand:

Materials you'll need:

• fabric and lace trims, white or off white
• acrylic craft paints or fabric paints
• cup of water & spray bottle of water
• disposable bowls or paint mixing tray
• foam brushes
• paper towels
• flat, non-porous work surface (cutting board, plastic tray, table covered with freezer paper, etc.)
• outside drying rack (clothes line, stick, branch, pvc pipe, etc.)

1.  Lay out the trim onto your work surface. I use an old rotary cutting mat that I accidentally warped with an embossing gun, but any non-porous surface like a plastic tray or cutting board from the kitchen will work great. Hint: you might want to set this one aside for craft use only from now on!

 

2.  Mix up your paints. Squeeze a few drops of acrylic craft paint (The $1 a bottle stuff you can get at any craft store and probably already have on hand.) into a painting tray or disposable bowl, then add enough water to thin it out to a milky consistency. This isn't an exact science. A ratio of about 5 to 1 is good. Too much water and the color will be lighter and less opaque, too little water and your fabric will dry stiff. You don't need to have a special fabric paint. Since we are diluting our paint with lots of water, any acrylic paint will work without changing the hand of the fabric too much. If you already have or can find inexpensive fabric paints (I also like Pebeo Setacolor transparent, below.), these of course work great, but won't require as much water to thin.

3.  Before starting, spray the trim with water to dampen. Wet your brush and begin to dab the color onto your fabric trim, blending the color with the brush and diluting with additional water as necessary. If the color seems too dark or splotchy, add water from your brush onto the trim itself as you blend the color. You will want to fully saturate the trim with paint so that both sides are covered and you end up with your trim sitting in a little puddle of paint. Once the fabric dries, you can go back and add an additional wash of paint to even out the color or make it more vibrant, if necessary. I only had to do this with the lighter colors, like yellow and lime green.

4.  Once you have fully covered one side of the trim, turn it over and dab more color onto the backside until it is fully saturated and evenly colored.

5.  Carefully hang your trim outside to dry. I use a stick or pvc pipe propped up between two window sills as my drying rack. You can use a tree branch (It will take on a little of the paint color but shouldn't hurt the  tree.) or clothes line, too. But, trust me, this is something you want to do outside unless you like a polka dotted floor.

6.  Repeat steps 1-5 as many times as you like until your drying rack overfloweth. When dyeing fabric or paper, I like to make as much as possible to have on hand for future projects.

7.  Once the trims are dry, throw them in the dryer on high to heat set the paint and they will even be machine washable. And, did I mention, this is also a great activity to do with kids? Since you can basically use this same method for dyeing fabric, I cut small pieces of trim and muslin scraps for my kids to paint and they have a ball! So put them to work and you'll all have fun and boost your stash at the same time.

7.  Warning: this process can become addictive! Now that you're crazy passionate about dyeing trims, you'll be looking around the house to see what else you can paint, and this is where our next tutorial comes in. When you return to your messy work surface to begin again with even more colors and trims, you will find something like this. And this is where we will pick up for Part 2 of our tutorial in just a few days.

You can find more tutorial pictures at my Flickr set. And let me leave you with a few great ideas from my Flickr favorites for using your new trims. You can also see how I've used trim in some recent projects here, here, here, and here. Now, go play!

 

1. small present/pequeno presente, 2. Untitled, 3. Removable Pocket, 4. back/side view...frilly butt!!, 5. Another pouch..., 6. Laptop Tote from Vintage Barkcloths, Satin Brocade & Trims, 7. Flower Apron, 8. Hab-Dich-Lieb-Rock, 9. wallet n.7/carteira n.7, 10. tanzen1, 11. malas by Paula Mateus, 12. Untitled, 13. Nicole wallet / carteira da Nicole, 14. Summer Bag, 15. patchamania skirt o' orange blossomy sunshiney love, 16. P1020643

*ETA: I've received a few comments indicating that the acrylic paint may bleed from the trim when washed, so you may want to experiment first or save your hand-dyed trims for projects that will not be washed or will be dry cleaned. Thanks!

Comments

[Barbara H.]

This is so valuable -- I am bookmarking this page! Thanks so much.

[julie]

first off thanks for the great tutorial..
I look at your beautiful designs all the time and drool hehe
but now wondering... can you use this same method for overdying already printed fabrics??
this is something that I will definitely try I have so many acrylic paints and I don't use them any more.
so thanks so much
julie

[Lisa]

This is just what i've been looking for!
A way to colour smaller bits of fabric without paying for a whole washingmachine full of clothing. Brilliant!
And perfect, I have just that sort of colour at home.

[CarrieJ]

I just came up with the acrylic paint idea myself (thinking about all the clothes that those drops of stray paint have ruined!). I did not think about doing trim and just painting it on though. What I did is use a plastic container (the one I used was from cotton candy we got at Sam's Club-or like what soup comes in when you get a to-go order) filled about halfway and added the paint, lid on and shake, put in your fabric (I did a baby t-shirt) and shake. Really easy and small volume.
I wandered over here from BariJ's, adding you to my list of blog rotation :)

[Jennifer]

this is awesome - and inspiring! yes, i can see how this could become addictive.

thank you for commenting on I Made It Monday! hope to see you there again. :)

[Eva]

Your so supercreative! Love the idea! (^_^)

[Tara D.]

Thank you for putting this tutorial together. I've been searching for the perfect blue trim, but I think I'll just dye it myself.

[Jean]

This tutorial absolutely bowls me over in its creativity and beauty- thank you for sharing this fantastic idea!

[Elaine/Muddling Through]

Great idea! Thanks. I can see the possibilities.....
~Elaine~

[IamSusie]

Thank you for this! What a terrific idea.

[Samsara]

This is brilliant! What a great idea! I have loads of lace scraps that are a boring white! I know what to do with them now! :-)

[Lauren]

Wow, great idea and tutorial. I have been wanting to dye fabric for a while but kept thinking RIT was what I'd use. Standard but boring. Probably why I haven't dyed anything yet! Your method looks a hundred times more fun and offers more room for creativity. Plus it's cheaper. Thank you so much for sharing this. Your creations are wonderful!

[Susann]

Your tutorial is *exactly* what I was looking for: thank you very much for it.

As soon as possible I will have a go at that :-)

[Valerina]

Thanks for the tutorial! What a great idea. I love the colors you selected and the colors in your work, they are so vibrant!

[Bacon Pecan Pie]

Thanks for the great tutorial! I will have to try it soon.

[suzi]

Love your tutorial, Koolaid also works and is cheap, they have bright colors and fun names like tropical mango cabana punch. I also use mason jars to put my fabric in and shake up.

Your projects are full of fun and crazy spontaniety!!!! Yippee!!

[Natelier Gypsie Vintage]

It's a Super idea! I want to trye and I show you (sorry for my english...)

[IamSusie]

Thanks for the tutorial! I did it too:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamsusie/2545067343/in/photostream/

[The Crafty Cottage]

Just Brilliant!!!!! I went to TN and visited a friend. She took me to a lace shop. I bought all of their remnents (20 grocery bags stuffed full) and shipped it home. I've given lots away but still have one of those very large rubbermade storage bins left. Thank you for reviving my thoughts on this bin full of lace. Some of it I was seriously going to toss because it's straight from the factory and has all of the extra still threading attached/yards of it needs to be cleaned up to make it like the stuff you buy in the stores. Now I feel it is sooo worth the work. You deserve to win this contest! If there's a voting system please let me know and I'll be sure to vote for you.
Heather

[Laura]

THANK YOU!!! I am running an Art & Drama summer camp with a Dr. Seuss theme for twenty-two 6-1o year olds. I was looking for an inexpensive way to dye cotton tee shirts and this is perfect. You made my day!

[gilda]

OH MY GOD you're so smart!!! i love this! i never ever thought of using acrylic. i'm definitely going to try this on some trims.

so wait, they are machine washable? so let's say if i have a bright pink trim i can sew it with white fabric and it will be ok.....?

[M&J Trimming]

This is a wonderful idea. Who would have known it can easily be done at home.

[Hillary]

oh yeah! I can't wait to try this!! thanks for the tutorial.

[Annie]

What a wonderful idea! I tried it myself and the trims turned out very vibrant! The only thing is... I heat set them like the tutorial states, then ran them under water to get rid of some of the stiffness and mine bled. :( I read up on dyeing fabrics and such and i found it beld because the paint doesn't bind all the way through the fiber. Have you machine washed yours without problem of bleeding or fading? Thanks for the tutorial though, its still awesome!

[Tracey]

Awesome tutorial and idea! I am going to have to try this. Now I can have any color trim I want, and don't have to search and search for it...Thanks!