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1. Pre-wash your fabrics in hot water with Synthrapol. You can do this in a
washing machine. If you are doing just a few yards a capful works fine
otherwise it's a ¼ Cup (2 oz.) per washing machine full load. After you have
washed your fabric you can either dry it or use it damp.
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2. Prepare your Soda Ash Fixer solution by mixing 1 cup (8 oz.) of the Fixer per 1 gallon (128 oz.) of hot water.
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3. While the 'Fixer cools down a bit prepare your dyes. Using your plastic cup
mix 2 to 8 tsp. of dye (colors with no * on the label use 2 Tsp., for those
with * on label use 4 Tsp., and for those with ** on the label use 8 Tsp.) in 8
oz. of warm water (not hot!) Next in another cup dissolve Urea 1 Tbsp. in a
small amount of Hot water.
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4. Pour Urea, after it has cooled down a bit, into the dye mixture. Transfer
the dye mixed with Urea to an 8oz. squeeze bottle. You can mark on the outside
of the bottle with a black permanent maker with which color you have poured
into it. Do this process for all the dye colors you wish to use.
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5. Put you pre-washed fabric in the Fixer solution. You only need to leave it
in 5 minutes. After 5 minutes remove it from the solution and gently wring out
the excess. You can use the fabric either wet or dry. ( dry fabric soaks up
much more dye)
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6. Place your fabric in the container of your choice, the smaller containers
give more finer white or lighter color spaces, the larger ones more color
coverage and bigger white or lighter color spaces.
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7. Using your squeeze bottle apply dye color where you want it. You may choose
to do your application on top only, this may give a half and half effect - top
side more intense bottom side very light. You could also flip the fabric around
to the other side and apply the same color or even another color, play around
with it for fun results!
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8. After you are done applying the dye cover the container with a plastic bag.
The idea is to keep the fabric wet and chemically active. Now you have the
choice of letting the fabric sit for 24hrs which would yield the most intense
color results or a less amount of time for lighter colors, again play around
with this for fun!
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9. After the fabric has sat for as long as you wanted it remove it from the
bag and container. Rinse out the excess dye in warm running water, at first
keeping the fabric in it's original shape when removed. Keep rinsing until the
water runs fairly clear.
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10. Do your final wash of the fabric, and you can put more than one piece of
like colors fabrics in the machine just try to keep it to a few yards, in the
washing machine in HOT (very important!) using a capful (for small loads) of
Synthrapol. Let the machine run a full regular cycle. All the remaining excess
dye will be removed. You will notice after you dry it in the dryer - that the
colors you saw when it was wet will have changed and be lighter.
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11. After it's dry you may want to iron out the wrinkles, I like to iron it and
fold to a shape that I can store flat in my sewing room.
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12. Now the fun starts let your imagination go wild! You have created you very
own hand dyed fabric, I bet you are addicted now! See how easy that was.
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